Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Fair to Midland

FAIR TO MIDLAND
Whiskey & Ritalin

From: Arrows & Anchors
Released: July 12

Fair to Midland are one of those bands you rarely read about in magazines or online, but there's a groundswell of extremely vocal fans screaming out adulation at the top of their lungs, proclaiming the band as the best thing to ever happen anywhere while most of the world ignores them. After giving in to curiosity and checking out their latest album Arrows & Anchors, I can see where both sides are coming from. The band is filling the void left by System of a Down, whose fans have always been rabid supporters, so it makes sense that Fair to Midland would generate a certain level of fanaticism (although, to be fair, they were once signed to Serj Tankian's record label). Which is not to compare the bands on a heaviness scale (because System leaves FtM's feet danging four feet off the ground on that seesaw), but rather they're creating world-minded, sonically diverse music that happens to be (mostly) aggressive in nature. However, where System of a Down were absolute masters of straddling the fine line between eccentric and just plain odd, Fair to Midland haven't quite moved past looking at the line from the odd side and wondering what it all means. They're getting closer, though, and a handful of tracks on Arrows & Anchors evoke that same kind of "Yeah! You take that world by the hair and drag it back to your cave" primal euphoria that I'm sure their staunchest fans feel during every note.

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