Humping lions on an album cover! Genius! Considering ‘Young Forever’ could be played in nurseries across the country, a little ironic. Scottish starlets, Aberfeldy, are full of innocent charm with songs of an undeniable sweetness. Taking folk sensibilities and distinctly traditional considerations, their playful, quirky style warms you to them immediately. Utilising travel pianos, organs, fiddles and a whole host of other instruments, the eminence of each song is varied enough to differentiate, but a consistent wholesome quality remains that’ll leave you all warm inside…just like ReadyBreak.
Album opener ‘A Friend like you’ takes a sun drenched suggestibility akin to that of Brian Wilson making you believe there is a sun soaked Scottish coast whereas ‘Vegetarian Restaurant’ despite it’s title, is a song of loving observations and boy girl melodies that’ll melt your heart. From the faraway, absent minded nature of ‘Love is an arrow’ to the Damien Rice direction of ‘Surly Girl’ Riley Briggs simply writes coy and clever love songs. Title track ‘Young Forever’ is a tender ditty that exemplifies his proclivity for detailing a young man’s reservations, much in a similar vein to that of Jack White, and song titles like ‘Something I must tell you’ and ‘Out Of Love’ with lyrics of mischievous childlike abandon: ‘Love is a verb and a noun as well/you’ll find it in the dictionary under L’, it’s hard not to crack a gentle, appreciative smile.
Not unlike other Celtic singer/songwriter acts, there are similarities in sound, but the campfire delivery of Briggs and candy coated backing vocals of Ruth Barrie and Sarah McFadyen make it a youthful, almost naïve, album of simple wants and needs. Pensive and wistful, ‘Young Forever’ leaves you yearning for summer. Deserving of a backdrop of Bambi, it’s an album so perfect it’s practically Disney.