A late review due to a postie’s clear liking for frantic, noisy Glaswegian rock, but Fault Lines is an album that warrants a review, as much because when this lot are treading the boards at the Enormodome near Las Vegas, we want to say that we heard them first (even if we didn’t write about them until several months later…)
Because, yes, United Fruit are a band who are capable of great things. There are a few pretty neat ones on this debut release, after all. And while the stadium rock suggestions are maybe a bit over the top, while they’re musically not BIffy Clyro, their songs are as impressive and as user-friendly as, say, Trail of Dead or At The Drive-in.
So, nothing here quite suitable for an X Factor cover, but ‘Kamikaze’ is a worthy start to this album, bludgeoning its way into your ears and your hearts. Like a particularly unsubtle take on, the Pixies, it’s not by any means the peak of a collection of nine visceral tunes, which, I’m guessing, are probably even better live, but on record they’re not half bad.
‘Three’ has a kind of subtlety, almost shoegazey, if it wasn’t trying to serrate your brain rather than batter it senseless. ‘Go Away, Don’t Leave Me Alone’s jerky, almost mathy rhythms provide a slight respite, but with ‘Confuse Her Now’ you can practically taste the sweat in the moshpit (there’s an idea, scratch’n’sniff mp3s…).
‘The Alarm’ is less subtle in that it goes for the hook rather than the feel, contrasting with ‘Wrecking Ball’s complexities, but it’s the overall atmosphere that the nine tracks generate that makes this album one that will, I’m fairly sure, go down as the starting point for bigger things.
And if you catch your postie whistling any of these, give him a slap from me.