Pagan Youth Demo Review

This is a cool 3 song demo I picked up at the Albion House Halloween Show last Friday. The drummer is a cool dude named Nick Donahue, who's really ace in my book. I'm not close to him, I don't even know him that well at all but I'll randomly run into him at a show or a party like once a year and every time he has a big smile on his face and acts like he's happy to see me. Legit dude. He once had a vegan straight edge cupcake party at his apartment which I kind of crashed with someone who was friends with me at the time. I was kind of being "that dude" even though I knew a lot of the people there. We came bursting in high as shit, said our what's ups, and start passing a pint of whiskey back and forth while watching others play ninja turtle video games in the front room. We were the only non-edge people there and I noticed a few people give each other nervous glances presumedly directed towards us. I also may or may not have blown a line in his bathroom.

Anyways, I'm not reviewing Nick Donahue, just the band in which he drums for. Pagan Youth play fresh sounding power pop with catchy guitar hooks and lots of melody all around. The vocalist really did a good job on these tracks, dude has a really good voice and it shows. If you want band comparisons, I'd say that they sound kind of like a cross between The Jam andThe Buzzcocks, though even a bit more poppy and not nearly as aggressive as those bands. The first song "I Don't Believe" is the strongest effort on their demo in my opinion. There's a bouncy sort of quality to the track, and there are hooks aplenty with good drumming to boot. The singer is sounding great and the overall song structure works out good for them. "You're Never the One You Want" is slightly repetitive, but doesn't detract from anything and is still worth a listen. The demo closes out with "Comfort" in which the vocals are a highlight. dude really puts his range on display for this one. I like the fact that people are still interested in playing good, solid power pop (especially locally), though I wonder whether Pagan Youth would describe themselves as Power Pop or as a straight up Rock and Roll band? Im interested in seeing what direction they'll take with the band. Hopefully there'll be some more choice cuts for us to enjoy in the near future. In the mean time, this will be staying in my CD player.