Somewhere amongst their seemingly endless touring, London-based duo the Molotovs found time to record their highly anticipated debut album, Wasted On Youth.
The Molotovs are siblings Matt (guitar/vocals) and Issey (bass) and their drummer, Noah. They’ve spent their first few years as a band relentlessly busking and gigging, and their incendiary live shows built them a highly dedicated fanbase through word-of-mouth. They supported bands like Blondie, The Libertines and the Sex Pistols before having released any music, sold out London’s iconic venue the Scala, and their debut singles all reached number one on the physical singles chart. Very impressive for a band who are still so young (Matt is just 17, Issey is 19). And Wasted On Youth proves just how extraordinary they are as a band.
The album explodes into life with the opening track ‘Get A Life’, just under 2 minutes of pure, raw punk perfection. It’s the most traditionally punk song on the album, with a very punchy guitar riff. Then, their first ever single ‘More More More’, an incredibly energetic song, the drums especially are brilliant in this track.
‘Nothing Keeps Her Away’ is a break from the high-energy rock and roll of the prior tracks, and is instead a really sweet acoustic song. It showcases just how brilliant of a guitarist Matt is, capable of both big-fuzzy riffs in the louder songs but also gentler acoustic guitar, which is reminiscent of ‘Liza Radley’ by the Jam, a band that the Molotovs are influenced by. Although influences like these are obvious that’s not a bad thing, as they pull from those older bands to make a sound of their own. A sound that can’t really be fully shoehorned into one genre as much as people would want to, just pure punk attitude with more pop sensibilities in how the songs are written, the raw passion they have for music is very clear.
The acoustic nature of the last song feeds into the opening of title track ‘Wasted On Youth’, although this doesn’t last for long as the beautiful acoustic riff soon bursts into the full band. The album manages to capture the energy of their live performances, incendiary and incredibly upbeat.
Matt is not only an incredible guitarist, but a brilliant songwriter. ‘Newsflash’ shows this, as not only is it an excellent song music wise, with a very cool bassline, but the lyrics are really good and the chorus is very catchy, “can’t you see the issue, and how can I trust you?”. On the topic of the amazing basslines on this album, ‘Rhythm Of Yourself’ is basically bass-line heaven! The rhythm of this song is so incredibly fun, both the drums and bass working together perfectly with a very Undertones sound to the bass, and once again the lyrics are really brilliant. The song is about individualism and doing your own thing, as well as the treatment of young people in the music industry.
Second to last track ‘Popstar’ is a really fun, frantic song with very clever, tongue in cheek lyrics about the stereotypical naïve ideas on what being a popstar would be all about, “I’ll go out with a supermodel and be number one, wash up in The Priory ‘cause that’s how it’s done.”
The album ends with ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’, a call to arms for the next generation of rock bands. Incredibly upbeat and optimistic, this is the sound of the new generation taking over where the old left off. Overall, Wasted On Youth is an incredibly exciting and strong debut album and proof that the Molotovs are going to be the next big thing.
The Molotovs: Wasted on Youth – Released 30 January 2026 (Marshall Records)
Molotovs – Today’s Gonna Be Our Day (Official Video)
