The Molotovs - Wasted On Youth
Teenage siblings Matthew and Issey Cartlidge, aka The Molotovs, have released their debut album ‘Wasted On Youth’ via Marshall Amp Records.
“In those days, youth was a way of life.”
Look around the media landscape, and you’d believe youth and counterculture were dead. Just a sea of vapid social media folk and has-been radio stations stuck in a 90s Groundhog Day.
Step forward The Molotovs.
‘Wasted On Youth’ is brimming with abrasive optimism, bookended by a spirit of get out of our way, it's our turn! Opener ‘Get A Life’, a mod-cum-punk riot engulfed in the bombast of Secret Affair, the flamboyance of Mick Ronson, and The Clash’s early fury takes aim at those spitting bile. Meanwhile, ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’ charges through the streets with the purity and clarity of thought that can only come from teenage exuberance and Christ, how we all need a dose of it. The buoyancy of ‘Over The Counter Culture’, the pop instincts of The Jam, and a new vision that things can, should, and will be great are launched into the ether like a rock ‘n’ roll manifesto.
“Sometimes I get the impression there’s no room left....only the old can afford to be young.”
On the title track, ‘Wasted On Youth’, they offer the human condition of the young with glorious devastation. Lost but hopeful, a knowing sense of destiny kicking against its futility. This power-chord blitz explodes with optimism and corrupts with self-doubt, “That every word I speak has been said before”. As Matthew says, “Oh la la la , we were invincible”, twenty years of decline are eviscerated. The drama of Pete Townsend’s guitars, the biting lyrics of Joe Strummer, and a key change to remind us all that sometimes birds just sing and nothing is more beautiful.
Finally, 90s mania has bitten the dust!
As 2025, a year far too indebted to nostalgia fades, The Molotovs race into 2026 with the freshest take in a generation. With two fingers up to the naysayers and a helping hand outstretched to the forlorn, they reignite the UK’s greatest living creation, rock ‘n’ roll.