‘Enjoy Youth’ Finds Bright Light x2 at the Top of His Game (Review)
metroweekly.comEnjoy Youth, finds Thomas at the top of his game once again, with an album that has arrived just in time for heavy rotation through Pride month and beyond.While an eclectic roster of collaborators led him to take a varied queer-block-party approach on his last album, this one is a more focused outing.
It’s expertly crafted and full of house- and disco-indebted dance bops that are unmistakably Bright Light.They were teased in the upbeat “Sweet Release” and the dramatic “I Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do,” two singles that were released long before Enjoy Youth, but their energy is easily matched by the shimmery, cinematic synthpop power trip of “Snap!” and “Revived,” a feel-good house number ready for a summer tea dance.One of the feats Bright Light pulls off with Enjoy Youth is in keeping it almost relentlessly upbeat for its entire runtime without allowing it to lag or lose its sense of surprise.
And even in an album full of tracks that could each stand alone as an incredible pop number, there are a handful of standouts.Frequent collaborator Mykal Kilgore shows up to lend his charisma and powerful vocals to the infectiously catchy “Heartslap,” an endlessly repeatable number with a beat that gets under the skin.
Ultra Naté makes an appearance, too, lending her legendary ’90s dance magic to the earworm “Every Emotion,” by far one of the album’s strongest.While these tracks make for the kind of high-energy dance-pop romp you can lose yourself and your cares in, they have a thoughtful maturity running underneath them.
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