1. Just One Last Time
2. Spend a Little Time
3. Tonight's the Night
4. Meltdown
Being from Leicester, and going to a fair few gigs, it pretty much impossible for me not to have already come across the ubiquitous Freefall Felix, they are a pool of resources of bands past and present like *Special Guests*, Catch It Kebabs, Howards Alias and A New Days Enemy and so their popularity and large fanbase was always inevitable. I've also had the pleasure of seeing these live a couple of times and know they put on a superb show, however I won't let any of that cloud my judgment and will just review this CD on its own merits.
Ah - ska-punk, we all know the classic superstars of this genre - Less than Jake, Mad Caddies, Reel Big Fish et al, and it's certainly a genre that's been done to death by a truckload of piss-poor local bands who reckon they're 'fun' and 'crazy' with their onstage 'antics', but of course they nearly always manage to get everyone they go to school with to come to the gigs to have a good time and pack the venues out.
Freefall Felix are not one of these bands. They show refreshing maturity with their music with extremely well-structured songs, thoughtful lyrics and one hell of a talented vocalist, which is the thing that makes Freefall Felix a good band. He has a style very similar to Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) with his tunes that flit around over a massive range and with how he fits in so many words into a short space of time, this likeness to P!ATD is amplified by the choice of vocal harmonies that back the whole thing up.
The production of this CD is top notch and could easily stand up to anything by any of the aforementioned giants of ska punk, but where this CD falls down is on its overexuberance to fit in as many ideas, riffs, layers, tunes and harmonies as humanly possible throughout, and after listening to it makes me feel like I've just eaten a honey, jam and golden syrup pie topped with merinque and royal icing and sprinkled with sugar on top. I'm sure it's just a structural thing however and could be fixed by some well-placed, more minimal tracks between the richer ones.
You should certainly check these out, the songs are great individually, but as a CD - I'd probably wait until they produce a full length, which I'm sure will be something to behold.
www.myspace.com/freefallfelix
Nik's rating for this CD is:
