Young Doctors in Love return to the spotlight

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After igniting a firestorm of interest within the Canadian underground in their last album, Young Doctors in Love return to the spotlight with a sophisticated swan song in …In Love, which is out now everywhere that independent music is sold and streamed. Weighty power ballads like “Jamie,” “Could It Be That We’re Falling in Love?,” “Juliette,” “Just Give Me a Little Bit of Your Love” and the searing single “Julianna” don’t even account for half of the album’s contents, but on their own could have formed an extended play that would have easily been regarded as one of the most potent pop releases of early 2019. The music video for “Julianna” borrows from old school alternative rock themes and leaves all of the jaded props out of the mix, instead focusing wholly on the band’s energetic execution and affectionate grasp of tonality, and while it doesn’t highlight the enigmatic qualities of their lyricism as much as it does their incredible stage presence, it’s an effective teaser for listeners who are curious about what band they should trust with their hard-earned record-purchasing dollars this season.

There are a lot of different influences in play in …In Love, but they’re fused together elegantly in the big picture and help to lubricate the flow between tracks. …In Love is an extension of the progressive nuances hinted at in World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Young Doctors in Love have constructed their own version of Tommy. Intro/outro tracks “Juiia” and “If U Give Your Love to Me” don’t read like a prologue/epilogue any more than “Come on and Love Me (Like You Used to Do),” “Would You Say That You Love Me?,” “Jodie” or “Jamie!” feel like bridge pieces in an unflinchingly cohesive narrative. Admittedly, cherry-picking from the tracklist will yield a slightly different emotional takeaway from …In Love than listening to the album in its complete form without any distractions or interruptions will, but Young Doctors in Love and mixer Josh Bowman went out of their way to make sure that this isn’t a bloated concept record tethered to the longhand poetic ranting of a genre that’s been out of style for over two decades.

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I won’t lie – I came into this album with a lot of (almost) impossibly big expectations based on the reputation that this band has built for themselves in the last half-decade alone, but after listening to the record from beginning to end for the very first time, I instantly knew that I had discovered a real gem. Young Doctors in Love are firing on all cylinders on …In Love and making a statement not just about their identity as a group, but perhaps more importantly, about the state of their scene as it relates to their aesthetics. They’re setting themselves apart from their peers here, delving into the deeper channels within their cerebral sonic profile, and giving their counterparts south of the border in the States plenty of reasons to avoid resting on their creative laurels as the 2020’s inch closer.

Mindy McCall