Against The World

Always You has been on my radar since they were called Ablebody and opened for the Depreciation Guild at a show I went to ages ago. Twin bros Anton and Christoph Hochheim played in the Depreciation Guild as well as The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. By now, the twins have an impressive catalog of dreamy alternative songs, but Against The World is the first record on which they've worked with Jack Tatum from Wild Nothing as a producer. A good producer leaves their mark, and you can hear Tatum's voice in the newly embiggened Always You sound. The songs are drawn tightly in intricate lines, taught against the speakers. There's a jittery, glitchy feel in the lead single "Against The World" from the beat that contrasts with the smoothness of the vocals.

Always You - Against The World (YouTube)

Perhaps my favorite expression of the Always You sound are the songs that lean into the sophistipop that they do so well. In these tracks, they compare well with something like Treatment, resurrecting a sound from the eighties that still has resonance. One of the best examples of this is another single for which they shot a video, "Shadow Play."