Debut release from Paris Youth Foundation is immaculate.

 

Liverpool band Paris Youth Foundation are a group of musicians that have only begun making music together relatively recently, but you would never guess this was the case going by the cohesive, anthemic sound of their debut release If You Wanna.

Combining shuffling, sun-drenched afrobeat rhythms in the verses that recall Bombay Bicycle Club, with an uplifting jangle-fest of a chorus with could have been ripped straight out of the ‘This Is How To Write Good Indie Rock’ handbook, it’s an infectious track that has buckets of heart and demands to be listened to more than once. The nonchalant vocal performance, meanwhile, sounds effortless, with its lyrical hook “don’t know what you’re doing/but I don’t want you to stop” evoking the kind of whirlwind of feelings you only really get when you’re young and you think you might be in love.

If You Wanna is a promising and immaculately produced debut, showing the sort of right-outta-the-gate urgency that signals a young band ready to and willing to show everyone – including themselves – what they’re capable of.