5 out of 5

Label: 54’40” or Fight!

Produced by: ?

When you’re a music fan, you generally have, over the years, your “High Fidelity” albums.  You know: those records you discover that you then realize will blow any listener’s socks off, and so you make it your mission to spread the gospel, knowing as soon as you put it on, you’ll “sell” the album right away.

…Except if you’re me, it never seems to work.  There were High Fidelity albums before Ferocious Eagle, but man, I thought this one was gonna be it – another scrappy indie rock hit from the genius signer behind 54’40 Records, with the added flair of catchy pop craft and the right tinge of humor to grab the bigger crowds.  From the humorously cheap but badass cover to the gang vocals and the sudden deconstruction guitar mangles in lieu of choruses or bridges…  I couldn’t get Sea Anemone out of my head.  And so I played the shit out of it at Tower, and would have the CD conveniently playing whenever anyone was at the apartment.

I guess the kids were busy buying Strokes records.

But I still think this is an amazing disc.  If you’ve visited some of the other acts on this label – specifically 31Knots earlier proggy stuff – you have a dose of what FE does, and the way they excel and wringing exacting tunes from backwards, almost sloppy compositions.  The kick-in-the-pants, though, is the way they’re able to tweak this with a keen ear for a catchy chorus, or a give-ya-chills good riff; it’s both direct and indirect, singalongable and abstract as all fuck.  That the group finds space to ebb and flow to emotional peaks – Something She Said, closer I Just Don’t Care – in a short 30 minutes is all about how they’re able to fill up every second with notes that matter.

Maybe, hopefully, one day, when I’m the old smelly dude at the music store who has to beg to play a snippet from his collection, only available on some outdated format, I’ll create a Ferocious Eagle resurgence.  Because I’m telling you, despite my lousy track record with gettin’ the kids on board, this is an amazing pop/punk/indie rock record that deserves – deserved – more attention.