{"id":45697,"date":"2019-09-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hazel\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:09","slug":"hazel","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/hazel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hazel"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Los Angeles outfit who really impressed me with 2019’s True Believers<\/i><\/a>, I was understandably pretty eager to dive into Hazel<\/i>, the debut album from Young Hunting. This is an enthralling listening that has the quintet penning tunes inspired by divorce, misguided affairs, and existing in their show business oriented city. How this first record didn’t cause more of a dent is beyond me. <\/p>\n

\u201cInto your mind\u201d starts the album dreamy and soft with cautious plucking and a jangly setting as the curious opener unfolds with a soaring, ethereal quality. \u201cSweet Bird\u201d follows with a vocally expressive and reserved tune where the layered vocals\u00a0 shine. Elsewhere on Side A, \u201cMaze\u201d finds the band getting busy and lush with quieter ebbs of indie folk friendly melodica, while the percussion heavy and strong atmosphere of \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d is one of the best on the LP. The first side ends on the sugary sweet \u201cRust,\u201d which just oozes ’80s ideas with a significant shoegaze aspect. <\/p>\n

Side B is just as interesting, starting with the acoustic based and highly emotive \u201cAnnabelle,\u201d which draws parallels to the early days of Radiohead with sublime beauty, and the playful, folksy \u201cWhite Light Years,\u201d which delivers a chorus and vocal work you won’t soon forget. Young Hunting ends the listen on the mysterious, retro-pop stunner \u201cBaby’s First Steps,\u201d and \u201cRide On\u201d exits the affair much like it started with gorgeous gothic-folk stylings where strategic horns really punctuate the conclusion.<\/p>\n

An album that took two years to make, it is very apparent that a lot of work went into this debut. The meticulous delivery and unclassifiable nature of the listen make for an inviting, warm, and often mesmerizing experience. If you, like me, find that far too many indie outfits are too derivative of their influences, try Young Hunting on for size \u2013 you won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10340],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45697","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-young-hunting","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45697"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}