If there’s one defining characteristic of the music scene in 2010 so far it’s probably the lack of characteristics. Fads came and went, Chillwave seemed to disappear faster than it appeared and then the great ‘010 hype drought began. Blogs mercilessly scraped the bottom of any barrels to try and find a band worthy enough to be lavished with praise, to be their new great white hope. Day by day, week by week, the drought spread, bloggers were getting desperate, Stereogums were turning on Gorilla vs. Bear. They thought it would never end… and then Fang Island came along.
Their positive mantras and gloriously cheesy guitar lines had Pitchfork reviewers resorting to speaking in gibberish and earlier this year at SXSW industry insiders were offering to sell family members to get a ticket to one of Fang Island’s showcase shows. We in the UK have been largely kept in the dark about this enigma of a group, that is until now.
Trying to put pen to paper on what exactly you’ll be treated to the first time you pop ‘Fang Island’ on your stereo is one hell of a hard task but it’s the one I’ve been tasked with, so you’ll have to excuse me if I indulge in one to many similes or metaphor along the way.
The first track ‘Dreams of Dreams’ opens with the sound of firecrackers popping in the distance , providing a little glimpse of the boisterousness that is about to come before a chorus of voices sings ‘They are all within my reach, they are free’ accompanied by a church organ. This flows seamlessly into ‘Careful Crossers’ with its three looping guitar lines, they swoop around each other like a team of manoeuvring stunt plane pilots. It’s big, it’s brash, it's ludicrously positive and it’s brilliant and before you know it the next track ‘Daisy’ has started. ‘Daisy’ is perhaps the closest thing to a single on ‘Fang Island’ with its overexcited group vocals, fluttering organs and guitars more choppy than a stormy sea. It’s also reminiscent of the guitar wizzkid on youtube who plays the
rock version of Pachabel’s canon.
The pace at which this album moves along is brings to mind the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with one action scene leading to the next: a plane crash leads to a rapid descent down a snowy mountain in a rubber-dinghy, which leads to white water rapids There’s lots of bluster about this album but it always feels like the band know vaguely in which direction they’re heading and like Indiana Jones they get to that Indian village in the end.
‘Life Coach’ is part Modest Mouse part Weezer, with a gloriously warm Pinkerton-style chorus which is great whilst it lasts. ‘Sideswiper’ is a bit of a schizophrenic number which starts out at blistering pace before settling into an anthemic singalong which then in turn switches to a soap opera style playful guitar line and finally end in an epic manner.
‘The Illonois’ is full of hair metal riffage as duelling guitars swoop up and down liked a pair of crazed eagles. The kind of balls out guitar playing on this album may have fallen out of favour with the majority of rock bands today but Fang Island are definitely the people to bring it back.
‘Davey Crockett’ gets more and more grandiose as it goes along with duelling guitars, frenzied choral vocals and handclaps that build to an impressive finale. The album finishes with more riffage in the form of instrumental track ‘Welcome Wagon’ followed by the understated electric organ of ‘Dorian’ and as the album fades the last of the firecrackers pop in the background.
Listening to this album for the first time gives you a kind of warm fuzzy nostalgic flashback to a time in your early teens when you’d spend endless rainy days indoors playing Playstation games whilst listening to Weezer albums on repeat, a time when commandeering a single can of beer to share with four friends was the greatest achievement on earth. As you can probably tell it’s easy to get carried away by Fang Island’s music, when heavy riffage meets shout-along choruses at breakneck speed its really hard not just to sit back and with a big grin and enjoy the ride.
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