angel in realtime. by Gang of Youths

angel in realtime., the third album from Sydney's Gang of Youths, arrived on 25 February 2022, and it is a grief record the size of a cathedral. David Le'aupepe wrote it over the four years after his father died, and the songs work through mourning, the long ache of loss and the discovery of a family identity rooted in the Pacific Islands.

The band co-produced with Peter Katis, and the sound is a sharp swerve away from Go Farther in Lightness: chamber-pop strings, baroque swells and rock heft, stitched through with samples of Indigenous musicians gathered by the explorer David Fanshawe. Le'aupepe, guitarist and keyboardist Jung Kim, drummer Donnie Borzestowski and violinist Tom Hobden make it feel communal rather than confessional. It was their second record to enter the Australian chart at the top, and it won Australian Album of the Year at the J Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.