In today’s day and age, the amount of music seems to go to infinity. Anyone who can get their band or themselves in front of a microphone can pretty much instantly get at least a little attention, even if they really suck. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when the band Fragile Utopia and their latest album Alive kind of fell in my lap. In the interest of full disclosure, I know the drummer of the band, Dan Ryan, pretty well. We shared many a drink, talked about music, and even jammed together in college. He told me he was in a band and I, of course, wanted to hear what they sounded like. When I listened to their original demos I told him what I thought, mostly good, a little bad, but it was apparent the band needed polish and perhaps maybe a new singer. (PS: If you think this is going to be a schlock piece, please take a look at some of my back album reviews and know that if I think something sucks, I let it be known.) Now, the polish isn’t that great on Alive, but with a new singer and clearly some good direction from within the band are set to carve out their own path in rock history.
While it’s clear the band is still learning musically, they hardly come across as rank musical armatures. First off, the music is tight. Way tighter than most “independent” or “unknown” bands tend to sound. I know personally that these guys spend hour after hour rehearsing and playing and it shows on this record. And when you try and do some of the more complex rhythms they try in songs like “Cold”.
The song goes from offbeat syncopation to your standard beat, which is something that I know the origins of. Dan threw in a CD for me to listen to and it was this metal band that was very odd rhythmically, but they had this cool change in syncopation that Dan had me listen for. Both of our eyes lit up when we heard it because we knew just how god damn cool that sounded. And now, that musical vision was either shared with or just brought to the rest of the band and found its way into the music. It was quite awesome to hear because make no mistake, the song isn’t simply about the musical trick I just described, but it totally enhances it. The drums and bass hit you on the head like a steel sledgehammer that don’t stop for 3 minutes and it’s f*cking awesome!
But the bands bread and butter comes from solid song writing. Too many times now a days bands are focused on “being” something as opposed to just creating, and that really pisses me off. But Alive is full of songs that, especially with some more polish, could be amazing pieces of work. Personally, I will never stop listening to a song like “Skeleton”, which I think is just masterfully composed mostly because of its simplicity. There is no over thinking, the band just play what they feel and it shows. The title track is also a personal favorite of mine because it shows BJ Bonner’s vocal range. I don’t mean in terms of his range on the scale, but his personality range. There are times where he enters many different voices. The verse, the chorus both have different voices that he breaks into, and when the line “that now your time has come” is sung, there is a distinct blues kind of singing that comes out. Just great stuff. But what makes the song for me is the sick guitar solo laid down by Brandon Acker.
To put it simply, these guys have their sh*t together. And when they get some more experience, log some more recording and playing hours, and maybe even get a good producer to work with them, the sky is the limit for FU!!
In today’s day and age, the amount of music seems to go to infinity. Anyone who can get their band or themselves in front of a microphone can pretty much instantly get at least a little attention, even if they really suck. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when the band Fragile Utopia and their latest album Alive kind of fell in my lap. In the interest of full disclosure, I know the drummer of the band, Dan Ryan, pretty well. We shared many a drink, talked about music, and even jammed together in college. He told me he was in a band and I, of course, wanted to hear what they sounded like. When I listened to their original demos I told him what I thought, mostly good, a little bad, but it was apparent the band needed polish and perhaps maybe a new singer. (PS: If you think this is going to be a schlock piece, please take a look at some of my back album reviews and know that if I think something sucks, I let it be known.) Now, the polish isn’t that great on Alive, but with a new singer and clearly some good direction from within the band are set to carve out their own path in rock history.
