Not for love

Not for love (review)


"Every track here is a beautifully constructed sugar coated

angst-pill that forces you to hammer the repeat button on your

CD player; the moment the syrupy power chords kick in youll so

want to be young again. Title and opening track 'Soho'

and the second song titled, err, Ooh Ooh, are strong introductions

to the album and bring to mind the dynamics between sparse staccato

verses and full on lush distorted choruses made famous in Britain by

bands such as Manson, early Supergrass and PJ Harvey, themselves

influenced by the American post rock of Sonic Youth and Pavement.

Open ya mouths is a Fugazi-esq fusion of angry vocals and expressive

guitar.All I want to say is the kind of song that immediately comes

to a songwriter the moment he or she picks up a guitar- the vocals

lock onto the simple chord changes and there is very little variation-

usually when the songwriter presents this to the rest of the band it

is either binned or developed i.e. more fiddly bits are added.

Thankfully, this song just remains the simple and catchy song it should

be. The rest of the album follows in the same vein with Spirit and not for love

being further highlights of the album with soaring vocals and laid back

guitars.
Fern are band that hark back to the generation of UK indie acts once

labelled the New Wave of New Wave that somehow mutated into that ugly

thing called Britpop. If you want to remind yourself of the days

before it all went horribly wrong grab this CD! "

Ferdousur Rehman Glasswerk.co.uk www.glasswerk.co.uk