The first band on my random cd review list is Fox Jaws.
Label: Nevado Records
Price: 16.99
The album caught my eye in HMV a couple of days ago, maybe because it was mistakenly placed behind Death From Above 1979 which was the CD I went in for originally, but there was more to it than just a serendipitous find. The cover art was interesting, and the band name let me take a guess at what kinda music they are.
When I got home I popped the album in to be greeted by the genre I was expecting. Alt-country with loud twangy electric guitars. In the same vein as Rural Alberta Advantage, Hollerado, or Deer Tick.
The opening track, “Migrating Deer”, quickly grabbed my attention with a fast and heavy drum track, tempo changes, and a really fitting unpolished female vocalist. The song really takes off about two and half minutes in, with a quick tempo change and a brief change to a male vocalist. This song really got me excited to hear the rest of the album. Quite a good opener.
Unfortunately the next two songs didn’t grab me at all. The next song “Two By Two” (Which seems to be one of their most popular to songs on their myspace page) is incredibly dull. The music was very generic, nothing like the first track. And the biggest disappointment was that the girls vocals turned from meshing very well to downright annoying.
A couple of songs later “Youth Dance” kicks in with a completely different feel then anything else on the album. A snarly vocal that could be taken right out of an Against Me! song and a well chosen acoustic guitar chord strummed over a consistent drum beat creates an almost unplugged feeel. This stripped aesthetic was another different feel then anything that came up before, and really doesn’t come back up until the beginning of “Hunting Knives”.
My hopes of the album becoming more like “Youth Dance” were destroyed when “Drinking Fountains” started. The female vocalist was back in the spotlight, with a song about I don’t even know what? “Drinking Fountains”. This song is so boring. I don’t know whether it’s the annoying vocals, the repetitive unadventurous music or the ridiculous time and music change near the end of the song that It ushered in a new scale of dullness.
The boring music continues for a couple more songs until “Hunting Knives”, a much more traditional sounding country start to some grinding guitar then back to the traditional country sound. A duet this time, and it really works. About a minute into the song it slows down and you hear some harmonics. Then there is a sample….a sample that doesn’t fit at all. No where on the album is there another sample. A computerized voice goes “It’s learning Time”, and then there is a tempo change. If the tempo change didn’t usher in a fantastic new badass sounding guitar I’d say the song would be ruined. During “Learning Time”, the song speeds up with a grinding guitar and bass line and a really, well-done drum part. Other than the out of place computer voice this song was definitely the standout track of the album.
“I Am An Army” follows “Hunting Knives” by staying in the same vein of upbeat distortion drenched rock. This song strayed pretty far from the country that was so heavily intertwined in the previous songs. The ending of this song is nothing like anything else on the album. A guitar solo right out of radiorock and screaming vocals gave this song an exciting energy. The fact that this was the first time on the album that there were two songs in a row that were good really showed the problems with this band; absolutely no consistency. The feel of this album changes from song to song, going from fantastic to awful.
“The Enabler” comes up after and again it sounds completely different then anything else on the album and again really spotlighting how many different things this band has tried to do on this album. A synth is the driving force throughout this entire song. A lyrical chant about answering a phone and a very obvious chorus, but still really enjoyable, not nearly as good “Hunting Knives” or “I am An Army”, but at least this song wasn’t completely ignorable.
The last song of the album is called “Himmelfarb”. Yes….”Himmelfarb”. What a stupid song title. The song isn’t that special; a very very mellow generic closer.
I really really don’t know what to say about this album. There’s a lot of REALLY boring songs on it, but there’s also a lot of great songs. I’d never recommend it as a purchase. There are songs on here that are definitely worth listening too, but I say it’s hard to justify the 17 bucks I spent on this album. The first song leads you to believe that the album is completely different from what it actually is. There are some songs that manage to make this album seem exciting but there are more songs that bring it down to a point of sheer boredom.
As much as I may have made this sound like a negative review I really have to say I’m undecided on the album as a whole. The songs that are good, really are good. The songs that suck, really do suck. I’d say listen to (or iTunes purchase these individual songs) “Migrating Deer”, “Hunting Knives”, “Youth Dance” and the “Enabler”. If you treat it like an EP, it’s really fucking good.
