Arrested Youth, a name you might not be so familiar with, is an alternative punk band that was formed back in 2017 by Ian Johnson.

Starting out as a business graduate, Ian turned down corporate opportunities with hopes to pursue his career in music. Understandably that came with a lot of self doubt and discouragement. He had a desire to create something bigger than himself, to create an outlet for the very real problems and frustrations we face in our lives. In Ian’s words, Arrested Youth “is 100% a project for the people”. It was during their first ever tour - headlining for YungBlud, where they gained vast amounts of supporters and fans. Since releasing their first debut album FEAR in 2018, Arrested Youth has accumulated over 40 million online streams and are now preparing for their European debut at Reading & Leeds festival. 

At a time like the world faces at the moment, ‘Brightside’ is a very apt title for us to listen to. With a high energy start, the pace and tempo are clear to hear from the word go. Arrested Youth appears to be coming from a similar stable to Blink 182 or Sum 41 in sound, whether this is deliberate or not, but with a little more subtlety in the final production that adds to the creative mix. This song has a tight band production and is layed beautifully well to make sure that the main hook around ‘Brightside’ is pitched high, repeated often, and is easy to sing along to, which will make this track one we will hear frequently in the coming weeks. With tight vocal harmonies and diverse instruments this song is busy all the way through. The use of a ukulele pushes the rhythm when all the other instruments drop out completely and it gives a really different take on this style of music that makes ‘Brightside’ an upbeat song to have playing. 

I really like this track, it changes from major to minor, it has a stripped back sound, then all of a sudden, it's a hugely full sound, it’s different, but familiar, but overall I get the sense of complete uniqueness that make this one of the most interesting songs out at the moment.

 Punk     Pop 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.