MGMT are curious. Their recent, abrupt, 90-degree turn away from chart-friendly pop was a bold move, and a commendable one. Such leftfield-yearnings were also clearly signposted in their first album, which makes the slew of puzzled reviews for their last album all the more unfathomable (or lazy).

But one of the more interesting things about MGMT is how other bands have not really been able to ape the sounds exhibited during their swingeingly brief chart-dalliance. This hasn’t stopped a number of bands’ PR bumph mentioning vague connections and alliances with MGMT, of course.

Golden age -YOUTHLESS by YOUTHLESS

Hence Youthless, who have plenty of interesting traits worth genuine attention – their cluster of bright, twitchy and crystal clear songs, for example – are clumsily hitched to the MGMT bandwagon simply because the band went to the same university. Don’t all convulse with excitment at once.

The fact that Youthless are based in the gorgeous, alive and youthful city of Lisbon, and sound nothing like MGMT is moot, naturally. It’s all about association, yeah? This is annoying – because if any band deserves to stand tall on their own merits, it’s Youthless.

Listen to Golden Age and hear a young band who know exactly how to make a song tick. It’s snappy, clever and prickly and sparse – and the pleasing realisation is that this is not for stylistic reasons, but because the song itself required nothing more.

Youthless‘s songs shine with innovation, joyful realisation and colour. They force a smile on their listeners. What other association do you need?

soundcloud.com/youthless-2

Youthless are appearing at In The City in Manchester, next week. Wristbands are LITERALLY bargain of the century at £29.