Fang Island – Fang Island
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Record Label: Sargent House
The cold weather has been bearing down against us across the nation. There have been abnormal amounts of snow reaching even more abnormal regions. Blizzards across the North are trapping people in their homes. They are slowly going mad from cabin fever and over-watched DVD collections of their once favorite shows.
For all of us suffering the cold climates, there is hope in the form of an early summer. It's bright. It contains blistering guitar riffs. It has the power to completely defrost your senses like that Campbell's Soup commercial where the snowman turns out to be a kid after he eats his hot soup. Remember how cool that was?!
Anyway, that's what Fang Island does with their self-titled. It's hard not to be infected by the single "Daisy," or how opening static brings about an image of fireworks on the fourth day of July on "Dreams of Dreams." It's a constant feeling that last throughout the motions of "Life Coach" to "The Illinois." Then there's the test. After being bombarded with glowing waves of frequency for seven tracks, "Davy Crockett" builds the listener to more of the same excitement. Instead of being immersed in the song, the track slowly grows a mood around the senses. It's almost like the band realized they needed to give their listeners a rest, but not long enough to miss the binge of bright timbre.
It's hard not to say that Fang Island is much of the same thing morphed in different forms for 30 minutes, because it is. Even "Dorian" feels like almost two minutes of an unnecessary bookend placed on the album, only to be a relaxer after the wild party. But chances are that listeners will want to relive this rager over and over again. I have for a week now. It's not going to end anytime soon.
I have to admit being underwhelmed by this. I loved Day of the Great Leap and thought they were fantastic when I caught them live last year. I thought this would end up being something like And So I Watch You From Afar's self-titled, but not by a long shot. It's not bad, but stuff like "Sideswiper" could have been a theme song from an '80s sitcom. Fang Island going though some Growing Pains?
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