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Music

Experience a Beautiful Sensory Overload on Youngblood's "Broken English"

The best weird lyrics since French Montana said "fanute the coupe."

Thanks to the influence of Lil Wayne and Young Thug, the use of non-sequitur has become commonplace in pop music. While rock usually has to catch up with the innovations of rap, in this case the genre has actually been one step ahead ever since Thom Yorke cut-up phrases and pulled them at random out of a hat. This is all to say that Vancouver retro-futurist quintet Youngblood are contributing to a storied tradition in their own way on their appropriately-titled new song "Broken English." As the band's new wave funk starts and stops into double-time passage, frontwoman Alexis Young electrifies phrases like "quaalude comma" with her voice, eventually letting wordless clarion calls do the talking.

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"To say that 'Broken English' is nonsense would definitely have some truth to it, but the intention behind the song was to explore the inner monologue one has when trying to articulate the experience of feeling fucked up," says the band. "It doesn't really make sense from an outside glance, but there's a series of moments that all come together to complete the experience of a sensory overload. To me it's a voice narrating the experience and the thoughts that come up during self-reflection." Listen to "Broken English" below.

Photo by Kezia Nathe.
Phil is the Noisey Canada staff writer. He's on Twitter.