With a major label deal and a super televised Glastonbury appearance under his belt at the age of 18, Declan McKenna has the youthful self-confidence to tackle material that older songwriters rarely touch. His subject matter ranges from the suicide of US transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn and media portrayal of LGBT communities (Paracetamol) to Fifa World Cup corruption (Brazil, penned when he was 15) and law enforcement and Black Lives Matter (Isombard).
They are protest songs, but sound anything but worthy or world-weary. Instead, they are sun-soaked aural fizz bombs which channel indie rock through his love of David Bowie and Abba. His effervescent anthems are packed with detail, from electro squiggles to children’s voices, and he saves one of his best choruses for The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home, in which he packs the anger, fear, alienation and glimmering flames of hope of Generation Z into a euphoric, uplifting pop construction.
What a cracking debut.
