STAY YOUNG-NME SINGLE OF THE WEEK 06/06/98
Review by April Young
From stilted opening salvo to euphorically cacophonous conclusion, 'Stay Young' is a monument to the transformative, colossal power of rock'n'roll. And it coluldn't have come at a better time. In an industry increasing sickened with corporate malaise and falling record sales, casting bands aside as if they were fag ends, here is a reminder of the potency, beauty and glory of music. Oh yes. "Hey kids, rock'n'roll is here/So scream all you like/It's a naked pagan fury/Celebrate the new" is a call to arms, a tremendous carpe diem that rumbles with an urge for hedonistic abandon as well as a yearning for that youthful moment when music seems like the most important thing in the world. 'Stay Young' is a celebration with desperation at its core. When Tiny says, "My advice to all you boys and all you girls is never try to be old", he's articulating a universal worry that the sway music has over us when we are young dissipates with age, that we lose that ability to experience things with equal intensity. Then there's the already over-quoted line, "Gary Glitter's gone to seed/So who will lead us now?" which poses a valid question - where are the stars? Now the spangle-suited lord of quiff has turned into a wrinkly saddo, where does the spirit of rock'n'roll reside? Ultrasound might be presenting themselves as an alternative and they certainly embody a revolutionary kind of glamour. Like Jarvis Cocker, Tiny refuses to be marginalised by what others might perceive as freakishness - he demands access to the rock'n'roll experience, too. "I wanna go out/Want to have fun/And never come back home" - a reminder that we're alive. And that, more than anything, is what this rock lark is about, isn't it?
