Nick Van Hofwegen, under stage name Young & Sick has been previously well known in the art community for his visual work at music festivals, street fairs as well as his notable album artwork for artists such as Foster the People, Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke. After an exceptional acoustic set at SXSW and the release of Young & Sick, however, Hofwegen is making a name for himself in the auditory art faction as well.
His attitude toward his broad array of talents is casual. He sees visual art and music as one in the same and doesn’t find his talent in both areas as unique as critics are making it out to be: “I always did both and then one of them got bigger and the other started catching up. Now it’s kind of the same.”
Young & Sick is an impressive piece of work for someone who has never been considered a composer. Aside from trumpet work by a friend on a few tracks, each and every note was written, played and sung by Hofwegen himself.
The first track “Mangrove” is an entertaining, extremely happy-sounding song with lyrics far darker than the tune insinuate:s “I am so damn happy something must be very wrong.” It’s a great foreshadowing for the rest of the album.
The songs are mellow and calming, but with hidden pain and confusion. There’s optimism (“Ghost of a Chance”), depression (“Gloom,” “Valium”), sex (“Nowhere”) and a lot of letting go (“Feel Pain,” “Twentysomething”). The sound ranges from jazz to R&B to a capella to electronic, but somehow tie together to form a fantastically intriguing piece.
Sure, the trendy “beep-bop” music can get a little old, and I was definitely ready for the album to be over after the 40-minute stretch of choppy synthetics and monotone vocals but it is entertaining to say the least and worth a hard listen for a real groovy experience.
Rating: B+
