All Again For You – Wild Youth: Single Review

An ode to the fans. A sentence that acts as a perfect introduction to the latest release from Wild Youth.

2023 has had its ups and downs for Wild Youth but the one constant during the good and bad along the way was their fanbase. It is only fitting that Wild Youth’s first release after their Eurovision entry “We Are One” reflects one aspect of their fanbase that the band have stated numerous times are like their family. The fans asked Wild Youth to release ‘All Again For You’ and the band decided it was time to give back to those that stuck with them every step of the way.

After a long summer season of touring across the UK and Ireland Callum, Conor, David, and Ed have released their newest addition to their musical repertoire ‘All Again for You’ on September 20th. A song that has two very clear interpretations: the first, the more universal meaning, “that one person you’d go back to no matter how much that relationship hurt you at its lowest points and clearly wasn’t meant to be”. The second and, in my opinion, a more personal interpretation: a song dedicated to the fans who “never wavered in supporting the band”.

Stripping it back and focusing on storytelling through emotion is the focus of Wild Youth’s newest single ‘All Again For You’. Showing remnants of fan favourite ‘Through the Phone’, ‘All Again For You’ can be seen as a somewhat safe option with clean cut editing by listeners on their first listen and via the radio but, trust me when I say, you need to grab your headphones for this one.

Written by band members Conor O Donohoe and Ed Porter along with Carl Philip-Strom and Emil Gustafsson. Produced by Carl Philip-Strom, ‘All Again For You’ is a strong pull on the heartstrings that is more accessible and universally understandable than it initially seems.

‘All Again For You’ sees Conor tackling the lead vocals as Wild Youth continue with their format of shared lead vocals between lead singer David Whelan and songwriter-keyboardist Conor O Donohoe which first happened in ‘Live Without You’ in 2022. Some have argued online that Conor isn’t as strong vocally as David is and, to those who think this, I would argue the two singers cannot be compared as they both bring different strengths and tones to their music.

‘All Again For You’ is the perfect example of how Conor’s raw emotion, heard when singing draws the listener in, becomes the prime focus of the song. While, if David tackled the lead vocals, I would argue we would have an entirely different single. The single has been described as feeling as though the listener got punched by the emotional turmoil while listening to it.

The showstopper aspect of the single can be found in its production; as the culmination of Conor’s emotional vocal and the instrumental in the background is gut wrenching. It is exceptionally cleverly done. From the first listen without headphones, it sounded like a softer section in the background but, once you don a pair of headphones/earphones, this section comes to the forefront. If you are anything like me, it will be your scene stealing moment of the song as it acts as audio representation of what the writer was experiencing.

Lastly, the end section broke me and I would like to warn those who have that one person that ‘no matter what stage I am in life, I’d go back to you in the morning regardless of the heartache’ relationship this one is going to cut deep.

‘All Again For You’ is available on all streaming platforms now.