FIDLAR
TOO
Mom + Pop Records (2015)
Sounds Like: Wavves, Together PANGEA
Score: 7.5 /10
Comparisons to Black Lips and Jacuzzi Boys, recycled questions about their preferred types of beer from shitty music journalists, and a following largely consisting of pizza obsessed Tumblr-nauts have plagued Los Angeles’ garage/surf-punks FIDLAR since their 2009 inception. At that point in time, Zac Carper [guitar/vocals], Elvis Kuehn [guitar/vocals], Max Kuehn [drums], and Brandon Schwartzel [bass/vocals] were kids in their early 20s dealing with life the only way they knew how: getting constantly fucked up.
Their preferential subject matter isn’t breaking any new barriers. That’s something the band, their audience, and even the most entitled music snob collectively is fine with, because FIDLAR approaches topics of alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, and heartbreak with an unfiltered first-hand experience. They do as they preach.
Their 2013 s/t debut was a clear example of the lifestyle they were wholeheartedly leading. 14 tracks celebrating their excesses, it was a fantastic album that instantly put them on the map as absurdly talented party animals. Yet, that lifestyle was rapidly catching up to them.
While most bands worry about avoiding the sophomore-slump, that seemed to be the last thing on FIDLAR’s mind after their debut release. They first had to see if their frontman, now a full blown heroin addict with three near-death overdoses under his belt, was going to be alive to even record a second album.
Now, new-found sobriety, social-anxiety, and a stubbornness to grow up are among the topics that contextualize their new album, Too. It’s an honest album done in the catchiness that only FIDLAR can pull off. The days of smoking just about any pipe set forth in front of them are gone. But don’t worry, Too still features the occasional song to soundtrack your nights spent getting coked-up with friends, while earnestly discussing Bobcat Goldthwait’s comedy. Something I recommend everyone do at least once in their lives.
The opening track, “40oz on Repeat,” was the first single released, along with one of the best music videos the band has ever done. This song paints an image of what to expect from the rest of the album: sad songs set to fast and catchy tempos. Zac Carper starts the chorus with the words, “Because everybody’s got somebody, everybody but me. Why can’t anybody just tell me that I’m somebody’s?” That feeling of loneliness embodies the rest of the tracks.
To fans that have been steadily following the band, the songs “Punks” and “West Coast” will sound familiar. Once just demos released on YouTube, they have now been crafted into full fledged songs. “Punks” dresses in a fuzz-ridden riff that would make Jay Reatard proud, and “West Coast” is a true standout. First released on their EP, Shit We Recorded in Our Bedroom, this three-minute-and-twenty-two second long tale of a road trip filled with debauchery, while slowed down compared to the original, is still intensely enjoyable.
“Why Generation” is bound to become the anthem for every bored and unamused millennial, a song where the usual heavy riffs are traded in for an ‘of Montreal style’ groove. “Sober” is the oddest song on Too. During the verses, Carper impersonates a Valley girl having an emotional breakdown, which then smoothly transitions into the most memorable chorus, with the most poignant message derived from this album: “I’ve figured out as I got older that life just sucks when you get sober, I figured out when I got sober that life just sucks when you get older.”
Having covered songs by Elliott Smith, Ween, and Elvis Presley, FIDLAR have a wide-range of influences. Those shine through in the second half of the album, which truly captures what the band is capable of.
“Overdose” is slow-paced, and guided by eerie guitar tones, which slowly build up near the end. The rest of the songs are Carper at his most cathartic, and every track is better than the next. It all climactically closes out with “Bad Habits,” where Carper breaks the levee about all his demons. It doesn’t feel like a closing song at all, it actually makes you crave more songs in that vein.
FIDLAR tries to hold nothing back on Too, yet at times reciprocates the same sonic etiquette followed by seemingly every garage band these days. The latter part of the album is where they really manage to stick out. It pulls the record together. It’s where the band decides to be their most experimental, and because of that they successfully have slayed any notions of a sophomore-slump.
-Alan Madrigal
You can purchase Too now via Mom + Pop Music.
No Comments