The Fast Romantics & The Stars of Track and Field

Stevek’s music review goes here

The Fast Romantics: The Fast Romantics

Yet another surprise from Western Canada, the Fast Romantics have launched their debut album, of quirky, Pop-Rock music.  Trying to pin down their sound as I prepared for my review was a little bit more difficult than I expected, because the band seems to bring together several different elements, styles and genres into the mix.  There are flavours of Rockabilly, New Wave, Post Grunge, Punk and Brit-Pop, but the problem is that these elements don’t seem to be used for inspiration as much as they seem to be used for duplication.

The album opens with “Spooning The Gorilla”, a piano-rock song that sounded as though it could have been a Smash Mouth cover.  The follow-up track “Sleepy Jean” has guitar riffs that remind me of Primus and vocals that sound like Simple Minds.  “Stop Me” immediately reminded me of watered-down Interpol.  While not every song is as blatantly derivative, I couldn’t help but think that I’d heard all this before.

The Fast Romantics: The Fast Romantics

Shopping

Steve’s Rating: 6/10

The Stars of Track and Field: A Time For Lions

When the Stars of Track and Field released ‘Centuries Before Love and War’ back in 2006, I thought it was one of the best, most original albums I’d heard in some time.  They blended electronic samples and percussions with guitar and piano rock to create haunting, trippy and memorable music.  I became an instant fan of the album and the band.

When I found out that three long years later their second release was finally coming out I scrambled to make sure I got an advance copy ASAP.

My first impression is that this album really does sound nothing like its predecessor.  Now, this is not a bad thing, and although I found the initial differences between ‘A Time For Lions’ and ‘Centuries’ quite jarring.  The opening tracks, “Racing Lights” and “End of All Time” really don’t sound like the band’s usual stuff, being much more heavily produced with surprising up-tempo guitar riffs and a general Stadium-Rock sound.

“The Breaking of Waves” and “In Bright Fire” are more familiar sounding, and as the album progresses the music sounds much more like the Stars of Track and Field that I first loved upon listening to.  But the music on ‘A Time For Lions’ is disappointingly up tempo, losing much of the dreamy laziness that made the first album that much more special and unique.  The band is definitely tighter, much more cohesive, and their sound here is certainly far more mature and consistent.  But the loss of the gentility of the last album just stands out too much.  I wonder if this was intended as an album of reinvention as the band attempts to break into more mainstream markets.

The Stars of Track and Field: A Time For Lions

Wind Up

Steve’s Rating: 7/10