Faunts' Cause Us to Feel.Love
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of proves restraint is the recipe for success.
Faunts
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of
Released on Feb 17, 2009
The level of talent that has burst out of Canada in the past five years has been bordering on Greenwich Village-in-the-60’s levels for a while now. Switch out the folky blues of Dylan and Baez for the eclectic power sing-alongs of Broken Social Scene and synth-enhanced dance rock of The Handsome Furs and you’ve got a movement as powerful these days as anything else. Luckily, after their freshmen success, Faunts’ sophomore release does nothing if not empower the Canadian electro-fused rock movement. It’s a pleasure to have Feel.Love.Thinking.Of added to the canon.
At times buoyant, other times downright sorrowful, the electro whispers of the Batke brothers, now joined by a third Batke and Scott Gallant to form a quintet, channel everything from Radiohead to Underworld in a sort of indie ambiance that is at once cinematic and understated. It’s mastering this delicate balance that so many bands miss the mark on: the art of holding back. Feel.Love.Thinking.Of, as if we needed another one, is a testament to electronica’s place in the “real” music world.
And it’s a restatement that I’ll happily listen to: the lead (and title) track massages your eardrums with a beat that feels like it belongs in the club, but also makes you want to shoegaze as hard as a Jesus And Mary Chain experience. Steadily, twinkling synth melodies enter and the perfectly downplayed vocals chime like another instrument, not an invasion, rather, a pleasant addition to an increasingly intense sound that bounces across all channels.
Typically, I’m turned off by songs with titles like, “It Hurts Me All The Time.” This song, however, rages in on a wave of two parts distorted guitar, one part bouncing melody, and a synth-backdrop that sounds more like a vocal murmur of pleasure than anything sad, pathetic, or otherwise. Again, Faunts strikes a balance, managing to combine a happy (and brilliantly produced) song with some of the most utterly disparate lyrics (the chorus is a repetition of the title, occasionally switching gears to the ever-more-desperate, “Yeah, it kills me all the time”). One can’t help but make the usual Joy Division comparisons, but who doesn’t want a little more Ian Curtis in their life.
You can’t peg Faunts as psychedelic, but they are certainly “out there.” You can’t call them electronica, because it’s pop rock songs and guitars throughout. You can’t even assign the term “ambient” because the sleight-of-hand combinations of all the sound produces waves that slap you in the face just hard enough to take notice. If there’s one thing Faunts do best, it’s walk a brilliantly-produced sonically-driven line between all of these genres, and they do so with a quiet conviction that works just as hard as any sort of raging guitar solo or overwrought gimmick that any other band is putting out there.
There’s something to be said for not being hit over the head with sound; there’s enough sly, coy sneaking of sounds and hooks on this album that finding them make listening a pleasure. These boys seem like the perfect Edmonton addition to the already astounding modern Canadian oeuvre.
Check out the band's website here.
High Point
“Lights Are Always On” has all the pop hook you could want in an ambient post-rock package that is just plain enticing.
Low Point
If you aren’t a music LISTENER, this album might go over your head/slide past your ears without notice. Put your headphones on for the first few listens.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Feb 17, 2009 @ 6:00 am