Album Review: Your First Mistake - Wide Awake And Watching

Your First Mistake are a young bunch of guys from Edinburgh, with the youngest at 18 and the oldest at 23, they make catchy Pop-Punk with a slight hint of Scottish vocals in there too. They've already been lucky enough to share the stage with such bands as Young Guns, All or Nothing and Senses Fail to name but a few. This is their debut EP, with more work in the pipeline.

The EP opens up with 'Michael, It Was Just An Illusion', a clear statement about their pop punk roots. Keeping with a lot of the rules it follows, as the drums begin to fade in, the track crashes into a really energetic and catchy track, with a great chorus, sing along lyrics and doubled up vocals at times to make it all that bit more interesting.

'All That's Left Between Us Is Hope' is a bit more subdued, with another chorus with a hint of epic-ness about it, and some really tight vocal harmonies. A break down towards the end is constructed beautifully, with double vocals, and leading back into the chorus to finishing things off. 'Be My Purpose' has some really cool bits to it including really well timed pauses, where everything drops out, which works really well.

The last track on the album, 'I Say Flash, You Say Thunder', is a bit of a confusing one, as it has a much heavier sound to begin with, and even brings in a bit of screaming, but then goes back into the more typical sound of the EP, with strong harmonies and a happy sounding chorus. There are small breaks which have metal-esq riffs, and I'm not sure if the whole mix of styles works for them, but it does have it's moments.

Not a bad first EP, with a very catchy and popular sound, and the Scottish twang in the voice is a nice change from the usual false-American ones...

4/5

'Wide Awake And Watching' by Your First Mistake is available now through iTunes.

Your First Mistake on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and Purevolume.

Mark Allen