You know how much we love Angular Guitar Pop, I've preached about it wherever I've been. Growing up with the early XTC stuff, moving forward to The Sugarplastic and onwards to Field Music and The Futureheads.
It seems a long time since I've heard it, being so immersed in the new, indeed Philadelphia based quartet, Fib's self titled debut album. The follow up here is even more inventive. This sort of thing relies on constant shifting within songs or else it can all sound the same. Fib do this with ease.
PS, for instance, gets very close to Devo, but as you might expect, there are hints of Talking Heads and Discipline era King Crimson. The time signatures are very Prog at time, but yet there is a real melodic feel in all the songs despite the constant changes within songs.
It takes to the closer, Outro, to get near Pop and that is then taken into different directions by the twin guitar attack. Mutuals, the opener, is probably the most accessible, very close to Field Music's early work. But the whole thing is an incredibly inventive listen. Particularly, if you are as much a fan of Indie as Prog, as indeed I am.
This inventive Indie is what I spend of most of my downtime with and few do it as well as Fib. The need for Three Chord Guitar Pop is something to admire, but when a band wants to stretch across genres and surprise you, the applause is even higher here. This is absolutely wonderful!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on CD, Cassette and as a download.
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