IN REVIEW: The Fratellis - "In Your Own Sweet Time"

I'll be first to admit that I fell off the Fratellis bandwagon relatively early on; after releasing the brash and immensely entertaining Costello Music in 2006 and following it up with the more uneven Here We Stand less than two years later, they seemed to be running out of steam after just two albums. The five year gap between Here We Stand and We Need Medicine didn't help, and neither did its underwhelming singles. By the time their reunion hit full stride on 2015's Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied, I had entirely stopped paying attention along with pretty much everyone outside of their small, devoted fan base.

After eventually hearing some of that last album's tracks, I had to admit there was still something there after all; while their music was mostly far removed from that of Costello Music, there was a maturity and a classic feel that gave Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied an endearing quality.

These are trends that more or less continue on In Your Own Sweet Time, but there are a few new tricks thrown in; lead off track Stand Up Tragedy introduces falsetto to the mix, as well as a little more groove than we're used to. Sugartown's doo-wop undertones are an interesting touch, while The Next Time We Wed glides on a funky synth groove. Then, there's Advaita Shuffle, which features an Eastern-tinged guitar riff that comes off like a weird cross between The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows and Nirvana's All Apologies; oh, and there's banjos and timpani because reasons. Perhaps the album's biggest surprise comes at its conclusion; I Am That, a seven-minute slow burning epic, drives home that Beatles influence and picks up steam as it hurdles toward the album's end.

Throughout all these disparate influences, The Fratellis' knack for hooks is what lends In Your Own Sweet Time most of its charm. Starcrossed Losers' chorus is instantly memorable, and only soars higher as its instrumentation grows. Ditto I've Been Blind, a song that simply glides along on an easy groove before exploding into a big chorus that explodes into its own bigger chorus. Even the album's biggest misstep, the clunky arena rocker I Guess... I Suppose, packs on more and more harmonies until you can't help but smile.

All told, In Your Own Sweet Time isn't likely to win their dissenters over, especially those who desperately long for a return to the speedier, seedier tunes circa Costello Music; that said, I suspect any blatant attempt to recapture that lightning in a bottle would run too great a risk of feeling forced at this point. So, better to push forward, then; that is the mission The Fratellis accomplish here, and they do so while keeping their highly tuned melodic skills intact. It doesn't exactly reinvent the band, and it does run a bit uneven thanks to its wide array of sounds, but it's nonetheless the most consistently engaging Fratellis record in a decade. Consider me back on board.

March 16, 2018 • Cooking Vinyl
Highlights Starcrossed Losers • I've Been Blind • I Am That

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

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