After returning to the music scene following an almost universally adored sophomore studio album Mind Over Matter (2014), alternative rock band Young the Giant released their newest album, Home of the Strange, on Aug.12 with new twists on their music. But before that, a short history of this band.

Originally formed in 2004 and dubbed ‘The Jakes,’ the band sprouted out of Irvine, CA and quickly experienced conflict with schooling with two of the band members allowing them not to continue in the band. After four years of personnel changes, a single EP and another three years of member exchanges, only two of the original band members–lead singer Sameer Gadhia and guitarist Jacob Tilley–remained along with bassist Payam Doostzadeh and drummer Francois Comtois.

The four went on to perform with alternative bands such as the Struts, the Neon Trees and New Politics. Following these performances, the band, now Young the Giant, released their self titled album in January of 2011 and became very successful in the alternative music scene. Mind Over Matter would be released via Fueled by Ramen three years later.

This brings us to April when, on Tax Day of all days, the band would release the track “Amerika” off of their new album. In the subsequent months, the singles “Something to Believe In” and “Titus was Born” followed leading to the release of Home of the Strange this August.

The album overall is truly a work of art; their music has evolved to incorporate elements of funk, synth rock and even some ukulele while simultaneously not obliterating their sound as a band. Because of that, their new album allows them to create new and interesting ideas in their music without losing the people that enjoy their musical sound, and is really engaging even if you’ve never heard of Young the Giant.

Having pursued the album musically in effective manner, the band has hardly anything in the way of music videos for the album aside from a few visualizers and acoustic performances “in the open”, whatever that means. While music videos honestly should not have any bearing on the music, band or album in any way whatsoever, our society has become very visual and technology oriented. Because the band has refused to hardly do anything for music videos, they have, in a sense, damaged their ability to reach an audience. However, there is a chance I could be completely wrong and be missing some huge metaphysical connotation on the album or life itself by not having any conventional music videos: who knows.

All of that aside, the album is superb; there is no denying that the band went above and beyond with its fresh musical and lyrical aspects of Home of the Strange. The fact that they don’t have many music videos really doesn’t obstruct their music in any way.

The Parkway West Pathfinder gives “Home of the Strange” a 9/10.