Fair To Midland - Fables From The Mayfly...

Band: Fair To Midland
Album: Fables From The Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True
Genre: Art Rock
Label: Universal

Tracks:
1. Dance of The Manatee
2. Kyla Cries Cologne
3. The Wife, The Kids, and The White Picket Fence
4. April Fools and Eggmen
5. A Seafarers' Knot
6. A Wolf Descends Upon A Spanish Sahara
7. Walls Of Jericho
8. Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
9. Upgrade Brigade
10. Say When

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever simple music labels for bands, especially considering bands like Fair To Midland exist. This band, classified by some as art rock, others as prog-core, and still to others as neo-prog, have been slowly building a fan base for the last few years. After self-releasing two albums, the band signed with Universal Republic via Serjical Strike [owned by Serj Tankien of System Of A Down]. The result is the almost too wordy, "Fables From The Mayfly: Whatever I Tell You Three Times is True, a new step in the evolution of the band which is a clear showcase of their style and ability to throw many genres into one group and the result it produces.

Fables is a hard album for one to really critique for one reason: It is all over the place. This is good for any band, but the styles change constantly and throw one for a loop, so I must admit this took more than a bit to prepare. The album is presented through a fairy tale-esque cover and artwork to match, but the album doesn't seem to have a concept to follow [not that that's a bad thing given the flood of concept album over the past years or so]. The opener, "Dance Of The Manatee," open almost like something from Gatsby's American Dream with solid rock and story teller style vocals, but then chugging guitars begin and hardcore vocals come swooping out of seemingly nowhere. Confused? I was, but as I quickly realized, it is what Fair To Midland attempts to do. Vocalist, Darroh Sudderth twists his words and voice in ways I've rarely come by ever. His singing voice is a very common rock styling, similar to bands/artists like Serj Tankien, Chevelle, Tool, and other artist of the same vein. However, when he breaks into a more hardcore vocal style, he could easily blend in with Killswitch Engage or Tankien's old band, System Of A Down. "Vice/Versa," the third track, starts out heavy then dies down as Sudderth builds the listeners anticipation through his whisper like vocals that slowly grow to a large scale chorus. It's this tactic of slow build to large chorus that I think hinders the band as they seem to revert to it on more than half the album. It's almost like they found a niche and now manipulate it slightly and produce songs in a factory like setting. Not to take away form the band though, as the instrumentation is very well structured with whimsical moments as well as enough noise to make anyone want to start thrashing around. The band uses this to keep the listener on your toes and this is never more present than on, "April Fools and Eggmen," "A Seafarer's Knot," and the second to last track, "Upgrade Brigade." Even with all the mixing, the closing piece, "Say When," refrains from getting too heavy as the band seems to prefer staying very light and emotive. It's a slow builder that eventually ends with over a minute of chimes and hallow sounds.

As I said before, Fair To Midland is a hard band to review. They obviously stand out due to their interesting approach to music through mixing any genre they find into the mix, but it's what they take from certain genres that matters. Even though the overall result is quite appealing, the individual parts seem to be very general concepts hat have simply not been mixed yet. It is the fact that Fair To Midland uses such generic ideas as source material that the album doesn't feel as fresh as their sound tries to argue. Overall, I was just left feeling like I'd heard it before, just not in this way.


GRADE: 5.5/10