No matter how I review this I’ll get panned. It’s ‘trendy‘ to bash Funeral For A Friend now they have been in the charts, so if I give ‘Casually Dressed and Deep In Conversation’ a good mark I’ll get slagged off. On the other hand, their army of fans will crucify me if I say it’s a heap of shit. Talk about Catch-22… Anyway, in the last six months FFAF have grown quicker than any band in the UK. They’ve gone from supporting bands to headlining big tours. They’ve made the top 20, been playlisted on Radio 1, made the front cover of weekly music mags and even played the top UK festivals. Something is going right somewhere.
With their first two EPs revered for being harsh blasts of pop-hardcore, some people took offence to the re-recorded ‘Juneau’ single a few months back – a song which was excellent but was toned down by taking away some of the screaming. The reason behind this has never been made clear, but the long ranging consequences are now there in black and white – what should be a great album is made only a good one because the emotion found in older songs has been put through that major label production mill. Gone is the intensity and rawness and in its place is a watered down sound that often fails to impress.
That’s not to say CDADIC is a bad album, because it’s not. But it should be so much better. There are some fantastic moments; ‘Rookie of the Year‘ is a fantastic starting point with a massive riff and some chillingly harsh screams, with the melodies all present and correct. ‘Juneau’ is a great song and will be one of those anthemic dancefloor fillers that has everyone screaming the chorus for years to come, but I still maintain the older version was better, while ‘Bend Your Arms To Look Like Wings’ has a great melody and vocal line that really saves it from mediocrity.
‘Escape Artists Never Die’ is one of the best songs on the record, it’s harder than some yet the melodic parts really stand out. If every song had these qualities, FFAF would genuinely stick out as a beacon in their genre, but sadly the songs don’t always hit those heady heights. Still, ‘She Drove Me To Daytime Television’ is a great moment of pop-lite post-hardcore, again using vocal melodies to great effect. It’s Funeral’s ability to write a catchy tune that saves them from a lot of the shite that is floating about the music world at the moment. Ditto ‘Novella’, a blast of screams and guitars that at least ends things on a positive note.
Yet for every great moment there is a track flatter than a fart. ‘Bullet Theory’ is dull, ‘Storytelling’ is little better than a b-side and ‘Moments Never Faded’ simply regurgitates what the band, and a million soundalikes, have already done before them. The acoustic ballad, yep, the token one, ‘Your Revolution Is A Joke’ seems completely out of place on ‘CDADIC’ and whilst it is not that bad a song, Funeral should really stick to what they are best at.
Some of the reviews I have seen so far have given FFAF top marks, but this record is far from perfect. It’s actually quite disappointing because it could, and more importantly should, be so much better. The post-hardcore/emo/screamo/whocaresmo genre is set to implode on itself at any moment and bands who water themselves down to appeal to a mass market are going to struggle to get any recognition. This is a record that will sell well and will appeal to a lot of people. But in my view it’s not the best album this band could have made.
www.funeralforafriend.com
Paul