After years of silence, Second Youth resurface with “Only Child”, a five-track EP that captures a darker and more personal edge than anything they’ve released before. Formed between Italy and the UK by two veterans of the hardcore scene, the band has always leaned on straightforward speed, melody, and this unique organic sound you’ll fal in love with from the very first listen. This new release, recorded at Reef Studios, produced by Danusk, and out through Anchors Aweigh Records, doesn’t replicate earlier years but instead works with scars, family tension, and the pressure of self-identity.
The record’s core themes circle around loneliness, childhood trauma, failure, and identity without offering easy redemption. “Only Child is not a record looking for excuses or redemption. It’s a record that tells who we are today, without filters. It’s dirty, it’s direct, and maybe that’s why it’s our most genuine work so far,” the band says.
The lead single “Family Burden” puts this vision into sharp focus. The track carries the weight of isolation and daily shadows, with fragility pushed into raw, unfiltered sound. Its video, directed by Martina Pastori with cinematography by Edoardo Bolli, builds a disquieting picture of a man left alone in the countryside, repeating cryptic gestures until they grow unbearable in their ambiguity.
The full EP unfolds with songs that stay in this same territory of fractured identity and uneasy memories. “The Orphan Lullaby” opens the release as, in their words, “a lullaby to a troubled childhood, haunted by broken dreams and the constant shadow of depression. It’s about feeling left behind—by people, by promises—and it sets the tone for the emotional journey of the whole album.”
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“Family Burden” follows, a song they describe as “the attempt to put loneliness and inner weight into sound. It’s raw and visceral, because that’s how those feelings live inside some of us sometimes. It’s like transforming fragility and pain into something unfiltered, something that tells the truth without hiding behind metaphors.”
On “Cold Hard Shoulder”, the band writes about their conflicted relationship with summer. “Those bright, endless days can make life feel so much more romantic, almost eternal—and yet, when the season ends, it’s always like a breakup. Summer has never been a long-term relationship, just another cycle of hellos and inevitable goodbyes.”
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The title track “Only Child” is described as one of their most personal pieces: “It’s about growing up feeling invisible, like the shadow in someone else’s silence. No matter how much you achieved, even perfection was never enough. It carries the ache of chasing dreams that constantly slip away, and the loneliness of being both with someone and utterly alone.”
“Heart Slowed Down” closes the EP with stripped-down intensity. The band calls it “unlike anything we’ve done before. It starts with a clean, stripped-down vocal that leaves me completely exposed. Writing it was an emotional wreck—it’s about the confusion of love and abandonment, and how those two feelings often blurred together in my youth. It’s heavy, suffocating at times, but it’s also one of the truest things we’ve ever put into a song.”
The five tracks form a direct portrait of who the band is now, reshaping the old intensity into sharper, more intimate forms. The band is touring Europe in support of the release with dates set in Germany and Italy:
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September 17 – Trinkteufel, Berlin
September 18 – Eisen, Bremen
September 19 – Forsthaus, Fallersleben
September 20 – Kutscherstube, Dinslaken
September 21 – Monster Records, Hannover
September 27 – Devil Kiss, Olbia
