Joined: Sept 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 102 Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
Album Review : Future Of the Left - Travels « Thread Started on Aug 3, 2009, 11:59pm »
Future Of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another
This album is an absolute riot. It's not punk, it's not indie, and it's not parody; it falls somewhere in between.
It's not pretty, either. The lead singer has a manic approach to his vocals, the backing instrumentation is almost always brutal, and at first listening, tends to lead one to dismiss it. Let's not be too hasty, though - there are definitely some merits here.
The words throughout the album are almost always clever, and usually hilarious. "Arming Eritrea" with it's repeated "C'mon, Rick!" is a good example, although one is struck with ridiculous lines throughout the album : Even the titles provoke an occasional guffaw : "I Am Civil Service", "You Need Satan More Than He Needs You", and my favorite "That Damned Fly".
The first two songs are pretty unrelenting in their manic rock sound; things slow down a bit with "Hope That House Built", which sounds as if it could be a outtake from Genesis circa "Nursery Cryme".
Nearly every song has it's moments. There's a great buzzy beginning to "Throwing Bricks At Trains". "Land Of My Formers" is straight-ahead fast-paced crunch. "Stand By/Your Manatee" is choppy and tells a great and funny story ("cause Emma's mom and dad use plastic forks"). "Yin/Post-Yin" is vaguely Arctic Monkeys, and that's a good comparison for the whole band - it's clever enough to rival Alex Turner and company, although the general approach is different. It's funnier, for one thing.
Another highlight is "Drink Nike". It's punky and catchy, with great indie guitars, and has a remarkable chorus ("Those kids/I swear/Drink Nike") before going into this amazing "smilelalalalalalalala" thing.
The mold is broken with the last song, "Lapsed Catholics", which is half acoustic (don't worry, though, the guitars kick in eventually). The words are talked out by two members of the group, which gives the whole thing a sitting-around-the-church-campfire feel. We get some dynamics with the acoustics eventually transforming into a droned loud-guitar-and-vocal. Great stuff, really!
Another comparison with this group has to be Dananananaykroyd, which have the same manic approach, and the same cynical but amusing approach to their words. D-royd is even more out of control, though, and therefore less melodic. These guys can play very, very well, and seem to have a careful construction on most of the songs.
If you'd like an album that's hysterical in all senses of the word, you can't do much better than Future Of the Left. This group has a future, for real.
"Travels With Myself and Another" gets an 8 on the England Swings 1-10 scale.
Joined: Sept 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 102 Location: Fairfax, VA, USA
Re: Album Review : Future Of the Left - Travels « Reply #2 on Nov 10, 2009, 11:15pm »
Heh! I'd heard of mclusky, but your post made me do a little research, and I'll have to check them out. That same sense of humor seems to be operating, with titles like "The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not On Fire."
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