STANDOUT NEW ALBUM

Wasted on Youth

The Molotovs

The sibling duo might not wear their influences lightly, but their debut album is an adrenaline shot of youthful optimism.

8.3

by David Rea

29 January 2026

The album cover of the Molotov's album, 'Wasted on Youth'. It shows the band members in the 1960s-style office. They are sitting and laying on chairs. They are highlighted in a pink circle.

Release date: 30 January 2026

Label: Marshall Records

STANDING AT THE BACK of a Molotovs’ gig, you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching the result of a botched time travel experiment: The Jam stepped into a glitchy time machine in 1976, set the coordinates for 50 years later, and the Molotovs stepped out. Much of the Jam’s DNA survived the journey — the punk-mod sound, the sharp suits, the even sharper lyrics about today's youf — but Paul Weller’s hair has turned platinum blonde, and Bruce Foxton is now a woman.

Meet the new band, same as the old band (to misquote another of the Molotovs’ influences The Who). But comparing emerging artists with established acts can reveal a music critic’s failure to look more closely, rather than a band’s to be original. The considerable buzz around this London-based sibling duo — Mathew Cartlidge (guitar/lead vocals) and his sister Issey Cartlidge (bass guitar/backing vocals) — has been hard won over six years of busking and gigging, fine-tuning themselves into a machine-tooled live act. Genre-adjacent luminaries the Sex Pistols, the Libertines, Green Day and Paul Weller have been lining up to endorse them, give advice or invite them on stage. With three singles released in 2025, and one more this year, we now have the debut studio album. And it's really fucking good.

With a runtime of 1.53, opener ‘Get a Life’ captures the breathless speed and brevity of much of the Libertines’ Up the Bracket, but swerves that album's ramshackle feel for a more compressed sound, which leans into the rock of punk rock. The band uses the same production mould for ‘More More More’ and ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’, which share equally catchy tunes, whilst ‘Daydreaming’, ‘Popstar’ and the album's longest track at 3.49, ‘Rhythm of Yourself’ owe something to Britpop.

“Wherever you drop the needle, there is the bright energy of unalloyed youth, mixed in with righteous anger ”

Their influences fit together like a Russian doll. ‘You’d better listen to the kids / We know where it's at’ from ‘Rhythm of Yourself’ is straight out of the Jam’s ‘In the City’ (‘I wanna tell you / About the young ideas’), which, lift the head off the next doll, is straight out of the Who’s ‘My Generation’ (‘I'm just talkin’ ‘bout my g-g-generation’). Elsewhere, on songs such as ‘Rhythm of Yourself’, there are echoes of Oasis’ no-one-can-stop-us-now, you-think-the-sun-shines-out-of-your-arse-but-it-actually-shines-out-of-mine ethos. But wherever you drop the needle, there is the bright energy of unalloyed youth, mixed in with righteous anger; lyrics slash through the lies of the music industry and the world at large. The Molotovs know tomorrow is gonna be better than today, and they can't wait to tell you about it. This is the kind of energising, chrome-plated optimism which inspires pogo-dancing around your front room (or, in the case of my age group, tapping the steering wheel with great enthusiasm whilst driving the kids to school).

Talking of my generation, there will inevitably be some firebrand Gen X gatekeepers accusing the Molotovs of pastiche. But influence doesn't recognise gates, or the grumpy, grey-haired folk who try to keep them shut (all whilst carefully ironing their faded Undertones T-shirt). If you really are concerned about potential inauthenticity, then go ahead and run the Clash’s ‘bullshit detector’ across Wasted on Youth: you won't set off any warning alerts. And even if you did, remember that bygone pop culture belongs to everybody. The Molotovs have celebrated their inheritance and made an adrenaline-charged, hook-laden album with it. And their youthful preoccupations are universal enough to sound as relevant today as they did in the late 1970s and mid 1990s.

With a UK arena tour supporting Yungblud scheduled for April, and rumours of a possible support slot on future Oasis dates, the future looks good for the Molotovs, their momentum unstoppable. If come this spring, standing at the back of an arena, they sound like they have just stepped out of a time machine, then remember this is just the beginning. What other influences might soon be laced into their sound? No one can predict the future, but I can't wait till tomorrow.