Youth of Today - Can't Close My Eyes (1985)

Tracklist
1. Expectations
2. Crucial Times
3. I Have Faith
4. Youth Of Today
5. Take A Stand
6. Positive Outlook
7. Can't Close My Eyes
8. We Just Might
9. Youth Crew
10. Take A Stand
11. Stabbed In The Back
12. We Just Might
13. Wake Up And Live
14. Standing Hard

New York City's hardcore scene in the early-'80s was a dangerous, drug-infested one. Leading lights like Agnostic Front and Cro-Mags were wild and powerful, but lacked the positive outlook of the Washington D.C. Dischord Records scene or that of Reno's Seven Seconds. This 1985 EP, originally released on Seven Seconds's Positive Force Records, was a potent opening shot from Connecticut transplant Ray Cappo's dynamic Youth of Today. The music tempers the metallic ferocity of New York hardcore with speed and subtle melodicism, and the moral outrage of songs like "Take a Stand" and "Can't Close My Eyes" is impossible to ignore.