Fol Chen - Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made
February 18, 2009
Dear Fol Chen,
You guys probably don't know me, but that's cool. I didn't hear your album, "Part 1: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made", until recently, so I didn't know too much about you guys either. I just had a couple of questions to ask you though, so let's not let things drag on.
I'm not quite sure how you guys figured out that every time I listened to Her Space Holiday, I wish they were a little less depressing and more on the affirmative side. Not to say you guys are Tony Robbins with a synthesizer, but you know what I mean. Your opening tune "The Believers" reminded me a lot of Does It Offend You, Yeah?, only without that ambiguously vapid approach. The programmed rhythm builds a misleading groove once the saccharine whispers started whisping into my ears behind a robust horn section. Toward the end of your song I felt really dizzy, akin to the vertigo you'd experience when one-too-many drinks through and trying to find the door at a boring and noisy party. While I exit, the acoustic melody makes me feel like the hero of this place.
It was when I started to get through the album that I realized I really liked you guys, almost to the point of envy. You manage to borrow from the best of genres that should've been blended a long time ago, but luckily weren't. I mean, "You and Your Sister in Jericho?" I can't help but shake this sneaking suspicion I accidentally switched to some imaginary side project of Portishead and Red House Painters, as the slow and somber acoustic and slide guitar lulls me into a dreamy sway before the industrial steamrolling rhythm sets in to remind me that while not an accessible album at all, the absorption makes it worth the challenge it feels like at points.
Your pop aesthetics lend your music very well to experimentation, which just makes me more curious to hear your music. I don't know how you guys managed to grab ahold of what I'm supposed to be thinking and feeling just to remove control for forty-one minutes, but I can't help but walk away from this album with the feeling that the radio wouldn't be so worthless if this was the type of vacation I got while trying to avoid terrible drivers.
