General Fiasco - Buildings
Review by Jack Foley
NORTHERN Irish trio General Fiasco finally drop their debut album, Buildings, after a hard 12 months touring and drumming up support and awareness.
The result? A moderately catchy collection of guitar-led tunes with an indie-pop focus that hint at plenty of potential.
Produced by Neal Calderwood with the hellp of Arctic Monkeys and The Enemy cohort Barny Barnicott on mixing duties, Buildings is a punchy 36-minute offering that never strays too far away from the term “radio-friendly”.
There are moments that capture the imagination, such as the epic mid-tempo title track, which drops some sterling guitar work with a moody approach and a strong chorus.
And the acoustic-led Sinking Ships, which is the type of track that slow-builds into a really energetic slice of pop-rock complete with Trans-Atlantic crossover appeal (you could well imagine it on the soundtrack of Grey’s Anatomy). The inclusion of some strings is also a nice touch.
Former single Ever So Shy is also quite agreeable… a spiky observational piece on the nature of youth that kicks off with memorable lyrics such as “let’s get wasted” and “we’re so stupid” – the type of ironic sentiments that are sure to become embraced by the very people its aimed at on a drunken Saturday night.
But elsewhere, songs such as Please Take Your Time and I’m Not Made Of Eyes just wash over you and sound more like album fillers than anything to really grab your attention and hold it in place.
Melodically, instrumentally and vocally, General Fiasco are good… but you feel their best is yet to come. Still, the groundwork has clearly been laid and Buildings offers a decent enough starting point.
Download picks: Ever So Shy, Buildings, Sinking Ships
Track listing: