Young Fire, Old Flame talks about racial injustice, differing perspectives and relationships. The opening song ‘Young Fire, Old Flame’ Wretch starts off by reminiscing his early childhood and the racial aggression already set up against him ‘remember feds put me in a grapple in my teens’. This makes Wretch question how things are looked at in society by those in power ‘if I shoot you I’m brainless if you shoot me you’re famous’. Why does the reaction of the action change depending on who done it? Wretch realises that the society we look at to help us will never take the time to know us because ‘they don’t wanna know our life story’ . Avelino comes in and plays off Wretch’s bars and lets us know what keeps him pushing through it all. His mum ‘I’d kill myself just to give you life’. ‘Nothing Will’ and ‘Crucifly’ re-enforce the same message about the flawed system people of colour are constantly battling against.
The second part of this album is less about society’s troubles and more about Wretch’s and Avelino’s own personal feelings and gives us as listeners a moment to be vulnerable with them. In songs like GMO ft Youngs Teflon Wretch and Avelino lets us know what keeps them emotionally centred and grounded through it all. For them it is about the people they are doing it for. Wretch’s ‘baby Skye’ and his want for the ‘qualities my mum brought to my life’ and Avelino’s reminder of ‘keep it real with those who keep it real’. Songs like Echoes ft Bobbi Lewis and Jade sees Wretch and Avelino battling with their own personal feelings vs the echoes of outside voices and their wants and needs from them. ‘They told me save the kids I rolled the weed up’(Wretch 32) ‘loosing battles that I had with myself(Avelino). Gift to you ft Moelogo gives a nostalgic feel with both Wretch and Avelino looking back at where they came from and where they’re at now and how they’re trying to navigate present life. Wretch reminds us he’s ‘just a kid from the estate who never had a fire for my place’ and Avelino is thankful ‘thank you lord, I’m from the manor so it’s thank you lord.
Dear Summer ft Bobbi Lewis and EMO and Dry Cry ft Stacey Barthe are the two closing songs on the album which let listeners in on who they have lost throughout their lives. Dear Summer has Wretch and Avelino begging for the season that everyone looks forward to, to not take any more from them. I want to enjoy summer for once and not be burying people in it. ‘How many friends should I loose before I find my worth now?’ Dry Cry feels like the perfect song to end on because it is one of those songs that has both Wretch and Avelino looking back on everything emotionally and all the struggles they have endured. Wretch remembers thinking ‘how can any Christmas that I have be merry times’ whilst Avelino ponders on his losses and his ‘friends I grew up with died, guess I’m growing over life’.
Wretch and Avelino cover it all on Young Fire, Old Flame. Literally. They give us substance whilst also giving us girls songs we can vibe with like Marathon girl and Hulk Hogan. If there is one thing Wretch and Avelino are always going to give us it is bars and wordplay. This is a solid album by two of the best lyricists in the game. And if you haven’t listened to this album yet then you definitely need to go and check it out. Thank you Wretch & Avelino for creating Young Fire, Old Flame.
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