aaamusic | On 04, Feb 2013

I guess that since music itself is now more easily accsesible than pretty much anything else in the world bar perhaps oxygen, the whole idea of a band name, album title and album cover making a statement about a band or record seems a rather quaint notion now that you can just find the song on youtube or the album on Spotify or somesuch. Nowadays it seems like something you’d here from maturing record buffs after a few too many fondly reminiscing of the golden days where one would walk into a record shop and find a record that they’d never heard of based on whether they liked the title, or the band name, or the cover art. With this in mind, it’s a relatively unfamiliar risk to me to pick up an album and have absolutely no clue what lies within. Like any risk it could quite easily be the discovery of the century, the most gruelling mental torture you’ve ever received or, much more likely, just alright. Nothing special. Worth your time. So how does this apply to Fuzzy Lights? Well, considering I’ve just spent nearly two hundred words discussing a vaguely related concept rather than the album itself, I think that this falls squarely into the aforementioned “just alright” category, but in the best possible way… if there is a best possible way of being “just alright”.

This is the good kind of “just alright” because it takes a very interesting concept, a mix of pastoral folk and enormous, soundscape-y post-rock, and doesn’t quite see it through to it’s full potential. As per usual, I’d rather see a band really put some thought into something and not quite get there than a band not willing to push the boat out and have an identity that’s truly theirs. Sometimes this album is great, in fact the album kneecaps itself by having its best track, Summer’s Tide, not only open the album but also be the lead single of the damn thing. I can forgive it because it’s pretty stunning, with some inspired guitar work, some genuinely exciting dynamics that the rest of the pretty sedate album just doesn’t have and a kind of edge that also isn’t found over the rest of the album. It’s pretty stunning and worth anyone’s time and money, but the rest of the album kind of pales in comparison.

I could mention track names but they only fade into one, Summer’s Tide stands out because it’s markedly different from the rest of the album, as does Blind’s enormous, feedback soaked ending, but the rest of the tracks are characterisred by timid folk-rock brushed with the most subtle of distorted guitars, like a colourless Mogwai or a bland Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Bear in mind that those bands are titans of their genre and it would be difficult to anyone to reach those heights but Fuzzy Lights achieve those comparisons themselves. In total, this is an album with potential to spare, it’s an inspired brand of music they play, if they could just play with some more conviction, gusto and some bigger tunes, then we could be on to something genuinely special. As it is, it needs work.

★★★★★

Will Howard