Album Review: Okay You Win – End of Days (Blues Funeral Recordings)

London heavy rockers Okay You Win will release their long-awaited and much-anticipated debut album, ‘End of Days’ on June 26th via Blues Funeral Recordings.

High energy, absurdly infectious, and very lovable, Okay You Win’s debut album is a triumph of rock in all its forms. A celebration of the past few years and a showcase of their power. Delivering eight impressive anthems, it moves and it grooves, leaving the strongest of impressions.

I love it, and I think you will too.

This is a ‘lightening in a bottle’ moment that perfectly showcases Okay You Win’s live energy as much as it does their song writing creativity. You can feel the heat, taste the sweat, and hear the excitement in every faucet of this album. Yet, impressively, it’s a smooth listen with no raw jagged edges. Where every instrument shines, the vocals have tons of space, and atmospheric layers help create a more immersive environment.

Think rock mixed with grunge, melodic desert and stoner groove, sprinkled with flashes of psychedelia, and every so often, given a sharp boost of intensity via more metallised moments. Hooky as hell, it stays addictive throughout because Okay You Win express themselves clearly and concisely. Which might sound silly, considering many of the tracks sit in the six-to-seven-minute runtime, but don’t confuse a leisurely approach as laziness or time wasting. Far from it, Okay You Win are pros at letting things breathe, least of the listener.

Early in the album, with its mid-point psych-infused switch, Smoke is a great example of this. Whereas later, This Damned Place showcases their measured thinking to even better effect, and that’s before I mention what Ten Year Trip offers.

Of course, there are moments where their approach is sharper and if you want to feel the blood pumping noisily in your veins then the title track and Red Flag will deliver. Both stay, mostly, true to a peppier pace, albeit with a twist here and there. Both are bangers, and both sit comfortably alongside the bigger and bolder efforts.

An album of the year contender? Without question.

Okay You Win – End of Days Track Listing:

1. Smoke
2. Beat Me Down
3. The Greatest Lie
4. This Damned Place
5. End Of Days
6. Red Flag
7. Ten Year Trip
8. Own It

Okay You Win links
Facebook⎮Bandcamp⎮Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings links
Website⎮Facebook⎮Bandcamp⎮Instagram⎮Youtube