“Do I throw my clothes in the fire? Do I throw my hopes in the fire?”

At breakneck speed, Gang of Youths pummels your eardrums with an energetic, heart-thumping track. The band aggressively prods you to question existence, question reality and question hope with almost 150 bpm (beats-per-minute), only a hair-breath away from cardiovascular arrest.

Yet magically, the track pulses with moments of immense clarity and peace: the rapidly strumming guitars are transformed by slow and languid strokes with the pace  dropping to a steady pulse of 70bpm with your heart. And then as suddenly as it began, the track continues to battle on breathlessly until the next moment of respite.

Think of Nothing But Thieves, Explosions in the Sky, such spectacular alt-rock that creates feeling and movement in spite of your headbanging.

(yes this song released 2 years ago, and yes alt-rock is something new on this blog. But after Gang of Youth’s performance at Boston Calling this summer it was hard to resist posting. Alt-rock is perhaps an older love of mine than synth-pop, but a love nonetheless)