Young Man - Boy Album Review - REDEFINE magazine - music art film journalism

With Young Man’s latest EP, Boy, it seems that singer-songwriter Colin Caulfield is very much entrenched in a past long gone. Boy‘s seven tracks are centered almost exclusively around themes of childhood and growing up, bearing song titles like “Bedtime” and “Home Alone,” and featuring autobiographical lyrics to match.

Listen to “Five” – DOWNLOAD MP3

The album starts with “Five,” which delves into painfully honest territory immediately. Lyrics like, “Daddy, won’t you come down here?/ Won’t you just lend me your ear?” surely must’ve been difficult to pen; one can almost relate to how fallible Caulfield must have felt when writing them. And despite the fact that such subject matter could easily have turned creepy, Caulfield’s approach — simultaneously full of humility and bravado — saves Boy from any such negative associations. Even if he has no idea what it is to be a man — as the lyrics imply, with lines like, “Trying hard to find/ A better place and a better state of mind” — he certainly knows what it is to be a successful songwriter.

Boy is wrapped up tight in reverbed vocals and lies comfortably on a bed of dreamy psychedelic pop elements. The main difference between this release and those typically found in the subgenre, though, is that it lacks the level of abstraction that’s typically associated. Most of the album’s success begins with very obvious lyrical repetition and recollections of memories and feelings from Caulfield’s life. Boy is an example of an artist taking a simple route to achieve fullness.