You Won't – Three Car Garage
You Won't – Who Knew
Boston-based band You Won't brought me two revelations recently. First, they are quite possibly the least Google-able band ever. Second, their album Skeptic Goodbye is quickly becoming one of my favorite releases of the year.
You Won’t is the project of Massachusetts natives Josh Amoudse and Raky Sastri. The two have spent the last few years in touring in the garage rock band Nohow On, which received some considerable attention from the likes of NPR and SPIN. Late last year, the lads retreated to the woods of Littleton, MA to record a set of songs Josh had written. They emerged as You Won’t and the songs became the album Skeptic Goodbye.
It’s a brilliant collection of lyrically focused, indie pop tunes. Each song surprises with it’s quirks and evolution, never seeming content to stand still. Like another of my favorite albums of the year (Chris Bathgate’s Salt Year), immersing yourself in the growth of each song rewards you each time with a huge payoff. The instrumentation is varied, the volume jumps up and down within songs, and the melodies are addictive and touching.
In the age of digital singles and throwaway albums, it’s refreshing to hear an album like Skeptic Goodbye that’s clearly thought out and held together with a thematic string. The songs are littered with allusions to youth, age, and Amoudse’s clear desire to travel back to the innocent, carefree days when he was younger. It seems as though his time-traveling wishes stem from a regret and a wanting to fix or change events of the past.
“If I was Marty McFly, I would go back to when we were 9 or 10 and I’d be your best friend”, he sings on the mandolin-led track “Who Knew”.
More simply, this is an immediately accessible album of indie rock by a clearly talented duo of songwriters. The depths of emotion are there to be mined if you so wish. But, there’s also some great window-down rockers, sing-a-longs (“Television”), and lonely acoustic strums (“Remember When”) that will hook you right away.
Pick up Skeptic Goodbye from the You Won’t Bandcamp page. I’m serious, you guys. Do it!