CROZIER – DIE YOUNG (AS LATE AS YOU CAN)

Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from Scottish artist, Crozier. Die Young (As Late As You Can) is released today (March 1 2023) and is a collaboration between Scottish musician Alan Crozier, alt-rockers Lonehead vocalist Martin Jenkins and Spoonr guitarist Nick Prentice.

Die Young (As Late As You Can) is a song about keeping a positive attitude and living your life to the full, regardless of your age. Crozier wrote the song after attending a friend’s funeral. In the eulogy, Alex McLeish, a friend of the family, quoted anthropologist Ashley Montagu, “The idea is to die young as late as possible.” This is a superb sentiment for a song, and we love the lyrics that tell the story of the main character;

“You don’t know what’s coming round the corner
You don’t know if this thing can last
Take it while you can and just enjoy it
Before your chances all lie in the past”

The song begins with a brief full-band instrumental section. Instantly we’re reminded of The Eagles. When the vocals come in, the band drop back to make space. We love the incidental guitars between the lyric lines – especially the Shadows-like licks.

Die Young has some superb rise and fall in the track, giving it plenty for the listener to get their ears around. It maintains interest easily throughout. The familiar chord sequence helps the listener feel familiar within the track, giving them the opportunity to really focus on the lyrics and the musicianship involved here.

The harmonies in this track are absolutely superb. They are tight and fit perfectly with the lead line, bolstering it and making it exciting to listen to. They are a real feature of the song and we’d encourage the artist to use much more harmony lines in future recordings.

There are moments in the song where we were reminded of Bruce Springsteen (both vocally and stylistically), especially in the breakdown. Bob Seger is another great who sprung to mind when listening.

The fade-out instrumental to end will set you in mind of all the bands that you loved from your youth, and this song already feels like a timeless soft rock classic.

Ideas from our ears

A small cut around 110Hz would reduce a slightly dominant ‘boomy’ tone in the low end. A little more warmth could be achieved in the vocal track with a boost in the 200-300Hz range. To our ears, there is a piercing tone in the drum track around 13kHz so a careful surgical EQ cut in this area would help to bring that under control. A little extra stereo in the track could really bring it to life. Some panning or even a simple stereo plug-in might help. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.

Final thoughts

Fans of The Eagles, Bob Seger, and good old-fashioned classic rock/ rock ’n roll will fall in love with this easy listening instant classic from Crozier.

https://www.ioccomusic.com/crozier
https://www.facebook.com/iOccoMusic
https://www.instagram.com/ioccomusic