{"id":635999,"date":"2026-10-20T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635999\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:00:09","slug":"way-dynamic-massive-shoe-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635999\/","title":{"rendered":"Way Dynamic: Massive Shoe Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne\u2019s Dylan Young looks as modern as any third-wave barista\u2014baseball-cap clad, flanneled, poised before a microphone\u2014on Massive Shoe\u2019s cover. But throughout Way Dynamic<\/a>\u2019s third album, it\u2019s clear that Young is a keen student of pop\u2019s past, arranging stacked harmonies and lithe instrumentals over guitar-driven songs that veer from radio earworms to jam-band fodder and back: not a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing, but an old head in disguise. On his latest, Young\u2019s major-key meditations on love and alienation are as winsome as a bay breeze, if occasionally as insubstantial.<\/p>\n

First track \u201cPeople Settle Down\u201d throws open the windows with a blast of snare and bright keys, Young\u2019s acoustic guitar line skating nimbly over the arrangement. His vocals enter this sunny tableau softly, hesitantly. The lyrics are all sweetness: \u201cI wanna build a gentle house,\u201d he avers. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it in movies\/I\u2019ve read it in books\/Sometimes people settle down.\u201d His intonation matches the tentative way this domestic fantasy builds\u2014an elephant enters the proverbial room, and Young asks, \u201cCould we see it through the night?\u201d The song is a dreamy barn-raiser, hoisting this premise on warm guitar tones and a plaintive tone that proves a through-line throughout the record.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

Young plumbs myriad decades and pop songbooks on Massive Shoe, from the charming, Beatles<\/a>-infused \u201cIn Review\u201d (\u201cI could have been your promoter\/We\u2019d have worked from home,\u201d he sings dreamily, as if this arrangement is the height of opulence) to \u201cEvening Star,\u201d which sounds like a chimera of Des\u2019ree\u2019s \u201cYou Gotta Be\u201d and Brazilian tropicalia. While these tracks are endearing enough, Way Dynamic\u2019s real magic sits at the juncture of folk and forlornness, when Young\u2019s guitar is allowed to ramble and his regrets are sharp enough to bruise. This formula works beautifully on \u201cMiffed It,\u201d an aching melody whose punch is amplified by its lyrical simplicity. \u201cI miffed it,\u201d Young admits at the opening, \u201cAnd that\u2019s the way it\u2019s gonna stay.\u201d He fumbled his love, and he has the melancholic ostinato to prove it. \u201cI miss you,\u201d he admits plainly, \u201cRather that would leave my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne\u2019s Dylan Young looks as modern as any third-wave barista\u2014baseball-cap clad, flanneled, poised before a microphone\u2014on Massive Shoe\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4958,156,157,111,139,69,1251],"class_list":["post-635999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}