FVRMN – Back To The Whip
Release Date: 24th May 2024
Label: Bifocal Media
Bandcamp
Genre: Alt Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop, Punk Rock.
FFO: Leatherface, Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du, Arcwelder.
Review By: Paul Franklin
Tokyo based punk rockers Fever Moon have been the latest band to undergo ritual disemvowelment, an increasingly popular (and thankfully pain free) procedure, and now go by the more modernistic moniker FVRMN.
As is the familiar narrative in the early part of this decade, Back To The Whip was singer/songwriter Jay Holmes’ ‘pandemic album’, nine ‘heavy, hefty songs that relied on a deep inner sense of musical drive and a wicked balance of both sincerity and a sick sense of humour’.
Apparently the plan had been for it to be a ‘raw slam punch to the guts’ kind of thing, but after Jay got a few friends involved it developed into much more of a refined product, which revealed more of itself with repeated listens. And it did just that.
First listen, and the response was, WTF! This is rubbish. It sounds like a cheap, lo-fi mess with the ‘singer’ doing a bad impression of Dicky Barret from The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones with laryngitis. It nearly didn’t get a second listen and was a gnat’s ball hair away from getting a scathing review.
But, we all know everyone deserves a second chance, so Back To The Whip got an another crack, and this time the response was, WTF! This is brilliant. As any fan of Wall’s Vienetta will tell you, it’s all about the layers.
Jay has taken a razor to a collection of 90s emo/pop songs, layered in slices of distorted alt/rock, and then nailed the resultant constructions to a huge wall of guitars. The title track kicks things off with aplomb, but it’s the following Diamonds that shines as brightly as its name suggests. It’s a simply fantastic song that echoes with a yearning that builds into a defiant resolution, aided and abetted by an earworm of a chorus and a jubilant solo.
Raleigh is the sound of the high school loner breaking back into the gymnasium after the prom and using the abandoned instruments to release his feelings to the emptiness.
Esoteric Lover is the optimistic teenage longing for an understanding ‘soul mate’ and the thrusting urgency for physical satisfaction. It’s also another fantastic earworm.
Forkburn On The Tongue blends the goth atmospherics of The Cure with the lo-fi sparsity Girls Vs Boys to great effect, whilst the Grim Finale is anything but. Lesson learned. Although first impressions do count, long term relationships take a second look.
(4 / 5)
