Thursday, March 19, 2009

REVIEW: Faunts - Feel.Love.Think.Of.

6.25 out of 10

Faunts(a band that deserves more credit) released their debut "slightly under the radar" album a few years ago titled "High Expectations/Low Results". It was one of the best albums I had heard in 2005. I worked at a local record store at the time of it's release. All I had to do was play track 6 "Will You Tell Me Then" and it was a guaranteed sale for the store. Four year's later Faunts have FINALLY released their second full length album "Feel.Love.Thinking.Of". If you compared "Feel.Love.." to nearly any random Indie Rock Electronic band I would say "these guys" are brilliant. Compare "Feel.Love.." to "High Expectations.." and it's umm, well.. :.(

Faunts, on previous efforts, were Shoegaze, Psychedelic Rock, and "damn impressive" compared to most new bands at the time. Rock structured guitars based from the late 70's battle it out with layered/spaced out keyboards from the 80s/90s, elements of Indie Rock, and gorgeous atmospheres. On "Feel.Love.Thinking.Of" they ditch the Shoegaze(mostly), most of the atmospheres, the "Psychedelia", and go a little more straight forward with the "Indie Rock-tronica" meets an "almost" Krautrock kind of vibe.

I can tell you right now, if you haven't heard Faunts first album, and this is your first, you will love it. The guitars are reminiscent of Interpol, not as dark, the vocals remind me of Collin Ruffino(from Home Video), the drumming is pretty tight, and the production is pretty solid. But, it's just not as dynamic or "eargasmic" as "High Expectations.." Some of the tracks sound like fillers, some of the songs sound like another band trying to play Faunts songs, some are SO CLOSE to being amazing ("Alarmed/Lights", the last half of this song has astonishing ambience) and most just don't "pick up the pace" the way you might want. Please, understand, I'm not trying to say this is a bad album, it's well written(for the most part), but...

I'm sorry it's just too hard for me to not compare this album to the brilliance that once was. Maybe that's the irony of naming your first album "High Expectations/Low Results"?.. It was so damn amazing that I had "High Expectations", but in the end, got "Low Results".

Standout Tracks: Feel.Love.Thinking.Of., Input, Das Malefitz, So Far Away, Explain

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