San Antonio quartet, Faulty Cognitions sound very Brit, the rhythm section is very 78 New Wave, particularly the awesome basslines. Yet songs venture into the Post Punk 80s that led to the Indie C86 joy. The band can do all three equally wave.
There is a real social awareness, Red Wedge-ish, but the underlying sound is a mix of the Dunedin years. Some of the songs would be big anthems in a lower fi way. All slightly aggressive Indie of the highest quality, riffaholic almost.
Yet, the band are not one dimensional, Don't Let Them See You Suffer is like a noisier Cure and Go To Hell is built on a wonderful Billy Duffy style Goth riff. They can also be endearingly noisy and aggressive in the style of Husker Du and perhaps more relevantly, The Replacements.
Tiny God is a mix of The Pogues and 90s Slacker Rock, beautifully in your face. There is also an ability to calm things down. Rooting For The Void is under a minute long, but a sort of Front Porch all together now acoustic number.
That sensitiveness also opens the closer, Enjoy the Ride, which turns out to be one of the best New Wave songs of the year. Lest we forget, Arsonist was a great introduction to the album, a splendid Indie Guitar Pop anthem with an underlying lyrical warning.
It is really impressive that Faulty Cognitions can change direction at will without the songs feeling out of place. They can come up for air, but rarely do and they strike me as a band that will be wonderful Live, all energy with songs that grab you at will. This is great!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on CD or as a download.
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