Play 90 second soundbite of 'This Life' @ 'CD quality'
UXL comprise brothers John (vocals & guitar), PJ (lead guitar) and Paul Tierney (drums) and Dan Clark (bass & backing vocals). Together these four young guys have contrived to come up with a rockin' and rollin' album to numb the senses and set the nerve ends tinglin'. Sitting somewhere within the wide expanses of indie rock and with hints of story-telling prog-rock, UXL show in no uncertain terms that 'indie' can still be innovative, meaningful and mature. UXL can run the gamut when it comes to composing and performing top notch songs; with something for most tastes but leaning quite heavily into the rock idiom, this intrepid foursome really get stuck into their work and make a bloody good fist of it (understatement or what?). UXL generally make a pretty 'big' sound but they can also do controlled minimalistic and beautiful semi-acoustic and just about everything in between. And it seems that, any way up, they give their absolute best at everything they do - UXL are the complete package and truly the real thing!
'Can I Dream Again?' is every bit as good (and more!) as I expected it to be based on their earlier releases that I'd previously had the pleasure to review within these 'pages'. The title track and 'Beautiful Today' indicated wondrous things and now UXL have managed to exceed my greatest and wildest expectations - 'Can I Dream Again?' is surely 'up there' with the best. UXL are young, good looking and obviously extremely talented - there's not really much more that they want or need to compete at the highest and most exposed level. This band is special and they must, must, must be on the verge of getting massive recognition and reaping the rewards for their hard work, superb musical expressionism and stunning composition.
It really don't get much better than 'Can I Dream Again?' by the brilliant UXL. Magnificent stuff!!
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