Not to be confused with 60′s British folk act The Young Tradition. Which is exactly what happened to me when I first listened to their debut album Northern Drive. From the first track I immediately thought they sounded like a cross Belle & Sebastian, The Ladybug Transistor and Stereolab. Then it hit me, ‘holy crap’ I thought, ‘The Young Tradition is probably some 60′s folk group that inspired all these Twee bands. How could I have missed it?’…Turns out I was way off. After digging a little deeper on the interwebs I found out The Young Tradition we’re talking about today is a collaboration between Swedish multi-instrumentalist Erik Hanspers and Japanese-American vocalist Brent Kenji (formerly of The Fairways) and their album Northern Drive was actually released in 2005. When you listen to the album you’ll probably understand my confusion. It’s sixties pop pastiche man. Jangling guitar, great orchestral arrangements (complete with xylophone and organ) and whispering like vocals sound like they were transported from the era of Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds.
