ARROWS & ANCHORS

I'm slightly surprised that no one has written a review for this album yet. I first heard of Fair To Midland when they where signed to Serjical Strike records as I'm a fan of System of a Down and had a habit of tracking what the band members where up to when they went on hiatus. The first album I heard from Fair To Midland was Fables from a mayfly ( I'm to lazy to write the rest of the title). I fell in love with the shift in styles, vocals and cryptic and poetic lyrics. I pateintly awaited the release of Arrows and Anchors ever since Fables. Adn though there are some very noticeable differences, I really enjoy this album. Some may be tuned away upon first listen by the fact that this is a heavier album, not just in sound but in production also. Yet the melodic passages, turns of phrase ( I found myself contempleting the philosophical inclanations of short phrases such as " I could be kicking the bucket, but you should know I never had very good aim" " Is shooting for stars like darts in the dark?" and " if failed attempts where a lottery ticket, you could be I'd be raking it in." just to name a few), and stylistic shifts still remain. Fair To Midland has simply taken what makes them so good and expanded the use of keyboards, growls and subtle electronic touches. Just as Good as Fables but different enough, Fair to Midland could've played it safe, instead they take what fans already love about them and try some new tricks.

The fourth album from this US band is an unexpected meeting.

Jumping out of the speakers like some angry wasps, this album takes no prisoners. The sound is a mix of neo metal with some really waspish angry guitars which has been teamed up in a wall of sound and some more gentle pastoral rock. This is the sound of the post millenium, hard rock style. This is a really hard album and metallic.

The guys does a very good job on their instruments and the vocals are good. The sound is good too. Everything here is good, except from the the lack of some really great tracks here. This album does not really takes off. It just walks around on the tarmac and does some pirouettes. Which is good. Those more into neo hard metallic rock anno post millenium will find this more worthwhile than I do. It is still a good album though in my estimation.

3 stars