It’s been a little over a year since L.A.-native Luke Messimer left Seattle for a small spot in Arizona. It was the beginning of a quest, to take a step back from the life he’d known and delve into self-exploration and his new music project, Northern Youth. Since, Messimer has returned to Los Angeles and finished work on his first full-length—appropriately titled, Home.

The record is built on catchy, extremely danceable pop music. It features the song “Broken Minds” as its first single, released in August. The track is a rhythmically driven swell of guitar, horn-like keyboard synths, and voices that sing of Luke’s abrupt loss of his sense of reality. Interestingly, though, the music consistently imbues a very upbeat sensibility. The following track, the beautifully constructed “Alive”, is a mellow one-two beat percussed tune with a vocal melody rolling with a picking guitar.

The album elevates it’s energy with the fast-paced “She’s In The Wild” and the anthem “Los Angeles”, two of the best songs I’ve heard come out of any artist this year. Reminiscent of something you might hear off Sam’s Town by The Killers, it’s the acceleration and vocal phrasing in “She’s In The Wild” that makes you welcome the song in for a long stereo residency.

“Los Angeles” speaks of the pilgrimage Northern Youth found himself on, landing home once again in Southern California. He uses a hymn-like proclamation, singing over a chorus of mandolin and drums.

Bending the record’s momentum toward more of a dreamy, lyrically-focused direction are the album’s three remaining songs, my favorite of which is “Looking for a man”. In it, Luke sings of his personal conflict with the notion of blind faith, “Mother can’t you see their lies. Oh father, look me in the eyes.”

Without a doubt, it is the thoughtfulness that Northern Youth exhibits on Home that makes it. The album easily earns a “R-A-W-K” on the “R-A-W-K-D” scale. Talk of Luke Messimer’s return to Seattle (with a full backing band) rumors for an early 2013 return, but until then you can check out Home for free at www.northernyouthmusic.bandcamp.com.

–Dominic Cortese, music writer, The Monarch Review