Learning how to live whilst navigating the difficulties life throws your way is hard enough sometimes. But letting go of those bad times in order to pursue a more positive future is a completely different lesson to learn. On their fifth full-length, LEARNING HOW TO LIVE AND LET GO, Aberdeen born indie-rockers The XCERTS are our teachers, parents, friends and peers, helping us through the trials and tribulations of life and coming out better on the other side, as we let go of the baggage preventing us from living our lives.
Step one in learning how to live and let go starts with lead single GIMME. An angsty, middle finger throw up, GIMME is the biggest sonic departure The XCERTS have exhibited to date. Inspired by pop artists with a punky underbelly, GIMME offers 100 seconds for vocalist Murray MacLeod to seethe about something rattling him, in an unapologetically pitiful way that screams pure and unfiltered sarcasm.
Now for step two in learning how to love and let go. Once you have let go of the bitter resentment the likes of Jealousy alludes to, followed by the bittersweet memories touched upon in Lovesick, you can push past the pain to celebrate everything good you’ve got going in your life. Tracks Ache and My Friends Forever are a match made in heaven, the former featuring lifelong friend of the band Sam Carter of Architects, abandoning his traditional metalcore screams for cleans that are delectable and entirely addictive. Perhaps it’s My Friends Forever that pays homage to the friendship formed between Carter and The XCERTS the most, the bond of an unbreakable friendship until the day MacLeod dies, celebrated in all its glory through basking in the memories of having each others backs, underpinned by a slow burning jazzy sound, one that lets the lyrics do all the talking.
And the final step in learning how to live and let go? Never stop learning how to live, because life itself is a long winding road, an ongoing process for everyone who is trying to come to terms with certain situations, feelings or trauma. This record is very much about getting rid of the negative energy and being at peace with yourself, and that is the biggest lesson you can learn from The XCERTS on LEARNING HOW TO LIVE AND LET GO.
8/10
Standout Tracks: GIMME, Ache, Jealousy, Lovesick, Inhale (Her), Lust In Translation
For Fans Of: Deaf Havana, Dinosaur Pile Up. Hundred Reasons
Written By: Katie Conway-Flood
