Gregory Robson
01/15/10, 10:12 AM
Fight With Flash - Fight With Flash
Record Label: Self-released
Release Date: Dec. 16, 2009
There's nothing summery or buoyant about the seven song EP from the Kingwood, Texas band Fight with Flash. In fact, much of the effort is dense, moody and somber. And yet despite this, the quartet has crafted one of the more surprising albums that has kept across this desk in the past few months.
Vocalist Ryan McGill's yelpy vocals shift and sway between morose mumblings and panged desperation, but does so in such a way that's endearing and familiar. The percussive and probing drumming of Sam Hodek anchors much of the foundation here, but caustic lines such as, "And I'm always hurting your friends, even though you're no different from them," from the jittery cut "Room," certainly bolster the group's status as something formidable. Certainly it's easy to craft an album that digs deep lyrically, but comes up short sonically. Fight With Flash does neither of those things, in the end though, the introspection makes all the difference.
Whether he's being candid with a lover - or finding inspiration from his mother's strength, "And I don't know why I didn't notice, the wrinkled eyes, the wilted roses. No I don't know why I didn't notice, that my Mom's heart, it blooms the boldest," off of second track "Paper Stems," there is tarnished hope and frailty in almost every word uttered.
Conveying that sense of brokenness and desperation is often difficult, but the four Texans in Fight with Flash seem to pull it off effortlessly. There are many songwriters who could utter the line, "I Just want to write the right way, is there a right way," like he does in "Great Chicago," and have it come across as cookie-cutter and dull. Yet the simplicity and the subtlety at work here is not to be ignored.
These aren't grandiose and verbose claims. It's just simple, unadulterated musings. And when it sounds this good, it's far too hard to pass up. With four EPs released in just under three years, the band is also prolific. These trait should certainly serve them well going forward.
1. ......
2. Room
3. Paper Stems
4. Collapse
5. Great Chicago
6. I'll Live By My Actions, You Live By Your Words
7. 415L
Ryan McGill-vocals,guitar
George Pappas-guitar,vocals
Josh Mead-bass,vocals
Sam Houdek-drums, vocals
The Dodos, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Cold War Kids, Manchester Orchestra
Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/fightwithflash)
Record Label: Self-released
Release Date: Dec. 16, 2009
There's nothing summery or buoyant about the seven song EP from the Kingwood, Texas band Fight with Flash. In fact, much of the effort is dense, moody and somber. And yet despite this, the quartet has crafted one of the more surprising albums that has kept across this desk in the past few months.
Vocalist Ryan McGill's yelpy vocals shift and sway between morose mumblings and panged desperation, but does so in such a way that's endearing and familiar. The percussive and probing drumming of Sam Hodek anchors much of the foundation here, but caustic lines such as, "And I'm always hurting your friends, even though you're no different from them," from the jittery cut "Room," certainly bolster the group's status as something formidable. Certainly it's easy to craft an album that digs deep lyrically, but comes up short sonically. Fight With Flash does neither of those things, in the end though, the introspection makes all the difference.
Whether he's being candid with a lover - or finding inspiration from his mother's strength, "And I don't know why I didn't notice, the wrinkled eyes, the wilted roses. No I don't know why I didn't notice, that my Mom's heart, it blooms the boldest," off of second track "Paper Stems," there is tarnished hope and frailty in almost every word uttered.
Conveying that sense of brokenness and desperation is often difficult, but the four Texans in Fight with Flash seem to pull it off effortlessly. There are many songwriters who could utter the line, "I Just want to write the right way, is there a right way," like he does in "Great Chicago," and have it come across as cookie-cutter and dull. Yet the simplicity and the subtlety at work here is not to be ignored.
These aren't grandiose and verbose claims. It's just simple, unadulterated musings. And when it sounds this good, it's far too hard to pass up. With four EPs released in just under three years, the band is also prolific. These trait should certainly serve them well going forward.
1. ......
2. Room
3. Paper Stems
4. Collapse
5. Great Chicago
6. I'll Live By My Actions, You Live By Your Words
7. 415L
Ryan McGill-vocals,guitar
George Pappas-guitar,vocals
Josh Mead-bass,vocals
Sam Houdek-drums, vocals
The Dodos, Arcade Fire, Animal Collective, Cold War Kids, Manchester Orchestra
Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/fightwithflash)