Album Review: Gang of Youths Finds Catharsis in ‘angel in realtime.’
Gang of Youths’ latest album, ‘angel in realtime.,’ tells stories of life, death, and love as frontman David Le’aupepe navigates the puzzle pieces his father left him.
Written by Victoria Canales
Gang of Youths have never shied away from expression. Making great strides in their musical output since their first release in 2015, the Australian alt-rockers’ music continually addresses the incessant trials and tribulations of life. Frontman David Le'aupepe has used Gang of Youths as an emotional outlet for his personal struggles since the band’s inception. Its first album, The Positions, deals with themes such as his ex-wife’s battle with cancer, his drug addiction, and his suicide attempt. Considering the weight of these issues, it is no wonder they continue to impact him years later. Sophomore effort Go Farther in Lightness further explores these traumas. Dark academia staple “Achilles Come Down” chronicles Greek hero Achilles’ suicidal ideations with the narrator convincing him his life is worth more than what his mind tells him, a narrative that mirrors Le’aupepe’s own journey with mental health. His art’s authenticity has propelled Gang of Youths into the global indie-pop superstardom that they have; Le’aupepe’s lyrics are poetry, and his story is all too familiar.
The most recent Gang of Youths album, angel in realtime, deals with an even wider array of topics: most potently, the death of Le’aupepe’s father and the family secret that Le’aupepe subsequently uncovered. An abundance of sounds — everything from strings to synths — run through the album’s veins. After his father died from cancer in 2018, Le’aupepe went on a mission to find out more about his family history, ultimately discovering that his father was actually fully Samoan, rather than half, and 10 years older than he had claimed to be. In order to deal with this complex news, Le’aupepe embarked on a journey to find peace through the making of angel in realtime.
The album, released on Feb. 25, opens with “you in everything,” a tragic tribute to Le’aupepe’s late father, with lines such as “We held you in your bed, we washed you in your sheets / And sang you hymnals from the islands 'til you drifted off to sleep.'' Melancholic lyrics clarify the painful experience Le’aupepe went through during his father’s illness. The subject matter is a stark contrast from the upbeat stadium rock that backs the frontman’s crooning, demonstrating Gang of Youths’ gift of uncovering love within heartbreak. Standout single “the angel of 8th ave.,” is a feel-good anthem about “falling in love, and finding a new life in a new city together” according to Le'aupepe. He reminisces fondly about his relationship with his wife and his newly adopted city, London, where the band relocated to after the release of its sophomore album.
The album isn’t purely power pop, though; there are a few notable ballads that build up a diverse landscape of sound. The song “brothers” follows Le’aupepe as he discovers his late father’s backstory and learns about his Samoan heritage, a solitary piano accompanying him on the melody, following him up and down the scale. Referencing his father’s secret history, Le’aupepe sings, “Thought he was born in 1948, but was born a whole decade before / Thought he was brought up in New Zealand, but he was born and brought up in Samoa / We thought that he was only half Samoan, that his mother was a German Jew / But I went and found his birth certificate, and he lied about that, too.” A sense of betrayal rings through the story of the song, but never blame. Le’aupepe understands his father was trying to protect him from experiencing racism, but that doing so has unfortunately caused issues with the frontman’s own identity.
Another quiet ballad is “hand of god.” The song regales listeners with the story of the infamous 1986 Mexico World Cup quarterfinal against England, when Diego Maradona used his hand to score a goal, and the event stuck with Le’aupepe due to his father’s love of sports. The word “hallelujah” trickles down through the chorus, mirroring the peace he finds in the memories of his father. Lines like “I've since understood / Just how you lived now that I am / Older, wiser and I've / Given up things myself like you” reflect the pain that comes with understanding your parents as you get older, which never gets any easier.
Indeed, there’s a recurring emotion running through angel in realtime. — that kind of gut-wrenching grief that makes you look back at everything you know and think, “how was everything so good?” However, there are no feelings of doom or nihilism; rather, there is beauty in the sadness, sweetness in the memories, and strength in the pain. It’s the knowledge that life is forever altered and the anticipation of all that’s to come. If angel in realtime. is any indication, Gang of Youths know that life is bittersweet.