Young and SEXY Stand Up For Your Mother (Mint) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
On their assured debut album, fabulously named Vancouverites Young and Sexy play vividly pretty orchestral pop anchored by confident instrumental skills and Brit-inflected vocals. The closest comparison is Belle and Sebastian, but with song titles like The City You Live In Is Ugly, Young and Sexy don’t take themselves nearly as seriously as the moody Scots. The songs start off one way — the title tune begins as bassy jazz — and then do a total 180, swinging into floaty finger-picked guitar a couple of tracks later, they’re playing slinky funk, then country twang. With their arch lyrics and surreptitious references to other songs, they’re actually more like Montreal soft revolutionaries Stars, which isn’t such a bad thing.
