The John and Edward Grimes Phenomenon is a curious beast. They are lively to the point of annoying during TV appearances; their image eye-catchingly bizarre and their larger-than-life personalities grating to anyone who doesn’t consider themselves a full-time resident of Planet Jedward. And yet their music is completely different.
Basically, they are a rare example of a pop act whose image and persona is completely mismatched to the musical styling – at least on this third (yes third) album. You look at the way Lana Del Rey is packaged and you can take a pretty accurate guess at what her music sounds like. Same for Rihanna, same for Conor Maynard, same for The Saturdays, same for JLS, same for Ed Sheeran… the list goes on.
But with Jedward, Young Love is almost boring when you weigh it up against what you would expect. I went into it predicting it to be lively, sporadically likeable but ultimately, over the course of 12 tracks, a bit on the irritating side. I was wrong. This album really took me by surprise – in some ways negatively, in some ways pleasantly.
Ultimately Young Love is a solid album of breezy pop music. Not a classic by any means, but pretty decent. The ballad-ish title track, the slow-building ‘Luminous’ and the superbly catchy ‘Happens In The Dark’ are the strongest tracks; whilst the more pop-rock focussed inclusions like ‘All I Want Is You’ fall pretty flat.
But even at its most pedestrian points, the album is so damn hard to dislike. There’s an innocence to it that’s missing from a lot of pop these days – you get so swept up in the cock-hungry horniness of the Rihannas and the forced sheen of the One Directions that it’s easy to forget how pop sounds at its most (for lack of a better word) ‘basic’. The obvious downside is that it does, at times, sound a little dated – but the huge upside is that it’s incredibly amiable. If only the boys had the budget for some slightly better writers and producers, they’d really be on to something big.
it’s great, even the iTunes bonus tracks are great. I love the totally unexpected How Did You Know?
Shame most people will dismiss it simply because it’s Jedward.
I’ve bought this album and I love it, I agree, its not what people expect from Jedward from their UK TV image, but having seen them perform live a few times I’m not suprised they’ve come out with a great album like this, the boys actually have lovely singing voices.
If you saw John sing Boyfriend live, whilst accomanying himself on the accoustic guiatar, you would never again doubt that these boys, despite the image, are actually very talented
I love this album, its just a really great summer pop album (maybe without the track All I Want is You), but if you get the itunes version it has 3 brilliant bonus tracks.
And buy the way – I’m way past the perceived target demographic of under 22 year olds.
Innocent breezy back to basics pop songs!! Jedward are always surprising us and the Young Love album is a summertime classic. Its the story of Young Love, the crush, the fun, the passion, the split up, the ‘I’m so over you (but I’m not really)’. And every one of the songs has a singalong catchy chorus :) I really LOVE this album!!
OMJ, I looooove JEDWARD!
their music has really changed, buy the ‘YOung LOve’ album and find out yourself! they’ve converted soooo many haterz it’s unbelievable! =:’)
TEAM JEDWARD.
I think a lot of non-Jedward fans would like this album- if only they gave the twins a chance they deserve. John and Edward are brilliant at singing live, but the public are sheep and follow the media, especially in the UK to be honest.
I really appreciate the thoughtful review. I particularly love the last paragraph, which I agree with 100%. The tracks do seem to span the decades, with some feeling particularly rooted in a previous time (“What It Feels Like” could’ve been a chart-topper in the late ’90s), but that doesn’t make the album any less enjoyable. It’s actually quite nice to remember how simple and fun pop can be. I hope people give it a chance!