Since their birth in 2000, this emo quartet have seen their fair share of people come and go in the band, with no less than fourteen members to be precise. This, their first full length on the the Equal Vision label, is an audio treat. With Emo currently going through a transformation where it’s hip to be sad and the likes of Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World on different ends of the scale proving to be popular with the kids, Fairweather draw a lot of inspiration from the latter and have come out of the melting pot with an impressive effort.
The album makes an inspiring start with the hugely impressive self-titled track of the album’s name. Kicking in with with a strong drum beat and a infectiously light guitar riff, it’s one of the best intro’s to a song I have heard in a long time. After slowing down for a second or two the song kicks in and thankfully it doesn’t disappoint. This really is emo-rock at its finest. The strong start to the album continues with ‘Soundtrack to the Ride’. Putting you straight into the song and deep into the vocals, it’s another track which keeps up the pace and the chugging riffs flowing. The quirky title of ‘Lets hear it for Dartanian’ is up next and slows the pace down a little for that all important breather. A long set of tingling guitar hooks begin the song with a distinctively ‘Saves the Day‘ feel to the song, of which many comparisons could be drawn from their new-wave emo counterparts.
A personal favourite of mine follows with ‘Young.Brash.Hopefull’ showing a lot of superb melody changes from the heavier chords at the beginning to the familiar slow down towards the middle of the song, it is superbly arranged with the bands vocalist doing a superb job with the varied tempos. Unfortunately it’s not all good news with ‘South Street 1am’ proving to be one of their weaker efforts. It starts out very sombre and somewhat drony and doesn’t really improve. ‘Casting Curses’ and the following ‘Whatever it Takes’ take a pop-emo-punk vibe going on which works very well, with both songs showing good tempo shifts and plenty of stop-start moments.
‘Next Day Flight’ is a shift in the right direction and another standout track, the song starts dark and maintains the bitterness throughout, with some Fairweather staples of the now familiar tempo changes taking place. The song comes with quite an epic finish as well. The penultimate track gets off to an energetic start and ‘Motion Sickness’ is certainly one to get you moving and improve that mood. ‘Welcome to Last Year’ is a slow and beautiful acoustic number which rounds the album off nicely.
Minor niggles aside such as a lot of the album showing much of the same song arrangement, this is a solid debut. With the band much in the same mould as Saves The Day they can only go further and after releasing their ‘Alaska‘ EP earlier in the year and their second full lengeth planned for 2003, the only way is up for Fairweather.
Jay