Youth Group Return With Sixth Album and First in Six Years, “Big Whoop”
Big Whoop. It means “who cares”, “so what”, “big deal”. It might seem a little arch or even sarcastic, but the title of Youth Group’s sixth album shouldn’t be taken too literally or seriously. It’s merely intended to be, according to singer, guitarist and songwriter Toby Martin, a “funny Australianism – we have a history of slightly humorous album titles. We just thought it was funny.”
And if there’s one thing Youth Group and Martin’s songwriting have long prioritised, it’s a poetic, romantic, and yes playful, sense of Australianness.
Big Whoop marks the return of one of the nation’s most beloved indie-rock bands of the 21st century, with their first album since Australian Halloween (2019). The band, which formed in Sydney’s inner-west in the mid-1990s, are approaching three decades together, but their musical curiosity, ambition and dexterity remain – and with the passing years have come experience and perspective that ensures they are smarter than ever as musicians, and beautifully cohesive as a unit.
The Youth Group four have been far from idle since that last album together. Martin released the acclaimed solo album I Felt The Valley Lifting in 2021 and has continued his long-time collaboration with the “Koori king of country” Roger Knox, among many other projects. Guitarist Cameron Emerson-Elliot and bass player Patrick Matthews play in the “Australian super group” Victoria, while the former is also a prominent exhibiting visual artist. Drummer Danny Lee Allen (who’s based in Miami, Florida) launched a solo career under the moniker The S-ft F-cus.
“We’ve all been stretching our wings in different ways,” says Martin, “and Youth Group is just one of the things we do now, and I’m quite happy to say that. It used be all-encompassing in my life, and now it’s just one aspect of it, and it’s the same for the others. And that doesn’t devalue it, in fact it means I understand the value of it as its own special thing.”
Australian Halloween was a reactivation of the band after an 11-year hiatus, with the record proving Youth Group’s melodic, power-pop-infused aesthetic was firmly intact, alongside Martin’s signature lyrical elegance and wit. Those things are all retained with Big Whoop, which was recorded in Sydney (with perennial producer Wayne Connolly) on the occasions Allen was visiting Australia between 2022 and 2024.
Take, for example, ‘Saturday Dad’, a slice of dreamy indie that exhibits Martin’s special talent for compassionately observing the lives of the characters around him – a line can be drawn between such a song and ‘Baby Body’ from 2004’s Skeleton Jar.
Elsewhere, the album moves confidently in intriguing, perhaps unexpected, sonic directions. ‘Don’t Turn Your Back on the Moon’, ‘The Lodge’, and ‘When I Was’ between them toy with synthesisers, drum machines and loops, ensuring Big Whoop rarely stays in one mood for long.
“We definitely indulge our love of dancier music,” says Martin. “We’ve also always loved the music from Manchester of the 1980s and ’90s – Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, New Order.
“But we’ve also been listening to more recent bands like Working Men’s Club that maybe have a similar kind of sound, and we’ve gotten into the idea of being slightly more driving – a few more drum loops, a few more synthesisers.”
Martin also nods to Yard Act, Sleaford Mods and The Fall when discussing the remarkable ‘When I Was’, that combines that “driving” feel with some spoken-sung verses. It’s one of a couple of tracks that date back 15 years to a collaboration between Martin and New York DJ and producer Ming (aka Aaron Albano). The combination of old songs and new has resulted in an album Martin describes as “a bit of a mixtape”.
“It verges from that Manchester-style dance music to stuff with acoustic guitar – a more indie-folk kind of thing. It does feel like there’s a bit going on.”
Lyrically, Big Whoop is typically replete with vivid, potent vignettes about both life in Australia generally and the personal lives of the band. ‘The Joke’ opens with the line “Born in autumn in Auburn” and tells the story of a teenager growing up in suburban Sydney, culminating in what is certainly the first time ever a lyrical couplet has contained both Paul Keating and Sarah Silverman.
“I’m still really motivated by characters who are going through stuff and living in real places. That idea really binds it all together – seeing where a character goes, and placing that in a landscape. I love the sense of veracity you get from setting things in real places.”
Parenthood and family life are also foregrounded, which is unsurprising given all band members are fathers: the numerous “Youth Group children”, as Martin puts it, range from age three to eighteen. “Ever since I had kids myself it’s never been far from my songwriting – on this album it’s ‘Saturday Dad’ and ‘Romeo’.”
Big Whoop also honours influences and inspirations. ‘Don’t Turn Your Back on the Moon’ is in part about the 2006 death of Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens, while the album concludes with a song titled ‘Kim Deal’ – which while paying homage, is a tuneful and jangly piece of folk-rock, and sounds little like The Breeders or The Pixies. “It’s a long way from Canberra to Dayton, Ohio,” Martin, who grew up in the capital, sings.
The chorus of that song, by the way, features the line, “It’s a big deal, in the end you have something to show.” And Youth Group once again have plenty to show. Their sixth album is a big deal. It is a big whoop.
