Almost Free - FIDLAR: Review
FIDLAR
is a California garage punk band who exploded onto the indie music scene in 2013 with a fantastic self-titled debut that blended punk musics hilarious cynicism with garage's blistering and low-fi rock aesthetic. They dropped numerous well received singles and developed a devoted fanbase before dropping Too their second project in 2015. The album had some popular and well received singles but ultimately fell short of fans expectations for a follow-up. And now after the long wait for a third release and 3 singles released throughout 2018 FIDLAR gear up for another album. After some moderately good singles last year the band started 2019 off with the fantastic By Myself single, which did a lot to drum up hype for the project and was praised critically across the board.
Review By Lav:
I, like most people really enjoyed the debut FIDLAR album when it came out back in 2013, the music reminded me of many of my favorite low-fi genres of the 80s and 90s and the snarky attitude of frontman Zac Carter was hilariously deprived. Even in the wake of some solid singles, most notably 40 oz. On Repeat their 2015 follow-up was plainly a disappointment, It had all the features that made the debut good, but the execution was mostly a miss. What I was hoping the band overcame on their 3rd album was a sense of contentment in their compositions, a generic and lifeless impersonation of the punk attitude and a lack of truly catchy hooks to make a follow up worthy of their debut 6 years ago.
On Almost Free FIDLAR pulls much more heavily from influences than ever before. The extreme variety on this album goes beyond the sound we are accustomed to from the group. Into the world of Brit-pop, southern rock and arena rock, all surprising sounds to hear on this project but they are executed with tight consistency. The opening track is one I've been quibbling with a lot on repeat listens, I fell in love with it at first but its novelty seems to have warn off a little. Get Of My Rock sounds like a far more lethal and energetic Kid Rock instrumental mixed with the fury of a Rage Against The Machine song, Parts of the tune seem as corny as they come but I can't help but laugh at its cutthroat lyrics and understand its sentiment. The song is ultimately just decent but from here on the albums takes off into the stratosphere.
For most of the rest of the album we hear FIDLAR writing a huge variety of rock songs with the only thread being how damn good they are. The second tracks Can't You See sounds like it would fit in with The Hives or Franz Ferdinand in the world of early 2000's rock with its insanely catchy hook and groovy guitar work. The song has a super modern approach to this style though and what frontman Zac Carper brings to the chorus is one of the albums shining moments and the first in a long example of the bands chameleon-esque ability to genre hop with peak efficiency. The next song is one of the exceptions, there may not be any song ever written that is more FIDLAR than By Myself, the single that sold me on anticipating this to be a good album. The degenerate and downtrodden lyrics delivered flashy over some of the danciest guitars you'll hear all year is a hilarious combination that has already set itself ahead of the curve as one of my favorite singles of the year. The angular distortion and low-fi percussion are the perfect mix for a song that refuses to take itself too seriously despite its subject matter, By Myself instantly established itself as one of the best FIDLAR songs to date.
The following song is Flake not a highlight of the project but a solid song regardless. It could use a little more energy but then the icy guitar riff bridges the chorus and verse gap its clear that the songwriting here is pretty on point and that puts it comfortably interesting enough to warrant its spot on the album. Next up is another quintessentially FIDLAR single Alcohol that pulls from the ethos of punks self-deprivation a humorous edge. The only complaint I have is that I wish the chorus had a little bit more too it, the build and bridge are enjoyable but it just needed a little tighter of a hook, within the context of the album I enjoy the song more than I did as a single last year. The albums title track Almost Free is a blistering 2 minute instrumental that acts as sort of a half-way point through the album, it is HEAVILY inspired by Jack White and sounds like it could easily fit in the tracklist of last years Boarding House Reach which is a big compliment. It contains a killer horn section that helps drive home one of the best written guitar compositions in the whole album and makes the absolute most of its 2 minutes standing out as a surprising highlight.
Talking of surprise highlights the next track Scam Likely pulls from a name you would never expect FIDLAR to be inspired by, Blur. The song sounds just like something that would land on Parklife and sounds like it would fit perfectly to the Girls & Boys music video, at parts during the chorus you can almost hear Zac slip into a Damon Albarn vocal delivery. So if you know me you'll know that I often refer to Blur as the most underrated band of all time so of course this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The snarky political commentary, dancy guitars and killer hook make up an absolutely fantastic track that I'm afraid too many people will miss this year. Next up after that is the duet with K.Flay Called You Twice a song I was a little bit nervous for. But thankfully the song, which sounds like a Bright Eyes composition on paper, is a heartfelt and precious lovers tune that takes a hilariously punky tone on love. The song goes on for just a touch too long but it is forgivable at this point in the album. Its also followed by the brief Nuke an explosive and bombastic interlude that barely gets the chance to make a real impression.
Unfortunately the last quarter of the project loses some of its cool influences and is by far the most uniquely FIDLAR section, and by far the worst portion of the project. Too Real was a single I criticized pretty heavily and most of my complaints still remain once I heard it in the project, the instrumental does nothing interesting but drown the track in sounds that barely fit together at all and despite some cunning and provocative lyricism from Zac most of what he's saying falls completely flat on delivery. This song mirrors so much of what was wrong with the last FIDLAR album and starts off a rough streak coming up. Kick is even worse, the song its a slow burner that is almost completely devoid of any interesting instrumental elements and Zac's beaten up lyrics seem so fake and shallow in the songs context, its the one track on the project I really can't stand to listen to all the way through.
Thought. Mouth, is a little bit better at least in its first half it brings the hooky energy that most of the albums first half in spades and after the breakdown and lull during the middle of the song it gets back into this energy. Its a solid tune that would fit in better if it wasn't surrounded by the albums most lackluster moments but in isolation it's solid. Good Times Are Over is another decent tune for opposite reasons. The instrumental is pretty tight but the song deserves a little bit better vocal performance and lyrics. Ultimately it is a decent closer to the album but one with a lot of room for improvement.
Having heard the album a few more times through than I usually do for these reviews to try and fully grasp it I'm comfortable saying that much more of the project is good than is bad and it deserves credit for that. In the beginning and middle it has a series of fantastic tunes that hit it out of the park time and time again even across different rock niches. This is hard to pull off and the fact that they do it so well is extremely commendable. I'm not really sure what I would hope for FIDLAR to do in the future as establishing a sound that it yours is always the best way to make something good but they blend so well on this album that I'm not positive what I think. What I am positive of is that this album has a handful of the best songs I've heard all year in By Myself and Scam Likely and with only 2 real duds to think of it tips the scales significantly in the favor of positive and a return to form for a band who's good days could have felt over if this album flopped. 7.5-8/10
Review By Lav:
I, like most people really enjoyed the debut FIDLAR album when it came out back in 2013, the music reminded me of many of my favorite low-fi genres of the 80s and 90s and the snarky attitude of frontman Zac Carter was hilariously deprived. Even in the wake of some solid singles, most notably 40 oz. On Repeat their 2015 follow-up was plainly a disappointment, It had all the features that made the debut good, but the execution was mostly a miss. What I was hoping the band overcame on their 3rd album was a sense of contentment in their compositions, a generic and lifeless impersonation of the punk attitude and a lack of truly catchy hooks to make a follow up worthy of their debut 6 years ago.
On Almost Free FIDLAR pulls much more heavily from influences than ever before. The extreme variety on this album goes beyond the sound we are accustomed to from the group. Into the world of Brit-pop, southern rock and arena rock, all surprising sounds to hear on this project but they are executed with tight consistency. The opening track is one I've been quibbling with a lot on repeat listens, I fell in love with it at first but its novelty seems to have warn off a little. Get Of My Rock sounds like a far more lethal and energetic Kid Rock instrumental mixed with the fury of a Rage Against The Machine song, Parts of the tune seem as corny as they come but I can't help but laugh at its cutthroat lyrics and understand its sentiment. The song is ultimately just decent but from here on the albums takes off into the stratosphere.
For most of the rest of the album we hear FIDLAR writing a huge variety of rock songs with the only thread being how damn good they are. The second tracks Can't You See sounds like it would fit in with The Hives or Franz Ferdinand in the world of early 2000's rock with its insanely catchy hook and groovy guitar work. The song has a super modern approach to this style though and what frontman Zac Carper brings to the chorus is one of the albums shining moments and the first in a long example of the bands chameleon-esque ability to genre hop with peak efficiency. The next song is one of the exceptions, there may not be any song ever written that is more FIDLAR than By Myself, the single that sold me on anticipating this to be a good album. The degenerate and downtrodden lyrics delivered flashy over some of the danciest guitars you'll hear all year is a hilarious combination that has already set itself ahead of the curve as one of my favorite singles of the year. The angular distortion and low-fi percussion are the perfect mix for a song that refuses to take itself too seriously despite its subject matter, By Myself instantly established itself as one of the best FIDLAR songs to date.
The following song is Flake not a highlight of the project but a solid song regardless. It could use a little more energy but then the icy guitar riff bridges the chorus and verse gap its clear that the songwriting here is pretty on point and that puts it comfortably interesting enough to warrant its spot on the album. Next up is another quintessentially FIDLAR single Alcohol that pulls from the ethos of punks self-deprivation a humorous edge. The only complaint I have is that I wish the chorus had a little bit more too it, the build and bridge are enjoyable but it just needed a little tighter of a hook, within the context of the album I enjoy the song more than I did as a single last year. The albums title track Almost Free is a blistering 2 minute instrumental that acts as sort of a half-way point through the album, it is HEAVILY inspired by Jack White and sounds like it could easily fit in the tracklist of last years Boarding House Reach which is a big compliment. It contains a killer horn section that helps drive home one of the best written guitar compositions in the whole album and makes the absolute most of its 2 minutes standing out as a surprising highlight.
Talking of surprise highlights the next track Scam Likely pulls from a name you would never expect FIDLAR to be inspired by, Blur. The song sounds just like something that would land on Parklife and sounds like it would fit perfectly to the Girls & Boys music video, at parts during the chorus you can almost hear Zac slip into a Damon Albarn vocal delivery. So if you know me you'll know that I often refer to Blur as the most underrated band of all time so of course this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The snarky political commentary, dancy guitars and killer hook make up an absolutely fantastic track that I'm afraid too many people will miss this year. Next up after that is the duet with K.Flay Called You Twice a song I was a little bit nervous for. But thankfully the song, which sounds like a Bright Eyes composition on paper, is a heartfelt and precious lovers tune that takes a hilariously punky tone on love. The song goes on for just a touch too long but it is forgivable at this point in the album. Its also followed by the brief Nuke an explosive and bombastic interlude that barely gets the chance to make a real impression.
Unfortunately the last quarter of the project loses some of its cool influences and is by far the most uniquely FIDLAR section, and by far the worst portion of the project. Too Real was a single I criticized pretty heavily and most of my complaints still remain once I heard it in the project, the instrumental does nothing interesting but drown the track in sounds that barely fit together at all and despite some cunning and provocative lyricism from Zac most of what he's saying falls completely flat on delivery. This song mirrors so much of what was wrong with the last FIDLAR album and starts off a rough streak coming up. Kick is even worse, the song its a slow burner that is almost completely devoid of any interesting instrumental elements and Zac's beaten up lyrics seem so fake and shallow in the songs context, its the one track on the project I really can't stand to listen to all the way through.
Thought. Mouth, is a little bit better at least in its first half it brings the hooky energy that most of the albums first half in spades and after the breakdown and lull during the middle of the song it gets back into this energy. Its a solid tune that would fit in better if it wasn't surrounded by the albums most lackluster moments but in isolation it's solid. Good Times Are Over is another decent tune for opposite reasons. The instrumental is pretty tight but the song deserves a little bit better vocal performance and lyrics. Ultimately it is a decent closer to the album but one with a lot of room for improvement.
Having heard the album a few more times through than I usually do for these reviews to try and fully grasp it I'm comfortable saying that much more of the project is good than is bad and it deserves credit for that. In the beginning and middle it has a series of fantastic tunes that hit it out of the park time and time again even across different rock niches. This is hard to pull off and the fact that they do it so well is extremely commendable. I'm not really sure what I would hope for FIDLAR to do in the future as establishing a sound that it yours is always the best way to make something good but they blend so well on this album that I'm not positive what I think. What I am positive of is that this album has a handful of the best songs I've heard all year in By Myself and Scam Likely and with only 2 real duds to think of it tips the scales significantly in the favor of positive and a return to form for a band who's good days could have felt over if this album flopped. 7.5-8/10
