18th
PropertyOfZack Review : : The Front Bottoms
I wrote this!!
What, exactly, are The Front Bottoms? They’re not “punk,” but the power chords and sheer simplicity of instrumentation seem to speak for themselves. They’re not “folk,” but all the guitar on the record is acoustic and the lyrics shine with irrevocable intimacy. And they’re not “indie-pop,” but there are very few points during the Front Bottoms’ self-titled album at which it would feel inappropriate, tapping one’s foot—the record is dance-oriented, to say the very least. They’ve been qualified by many as an amalgam of genres and after hearing their new album, one would be hard-pressed to disagree. It would seem the two-member Front Bottoms are a bit of everything: their sound spans more than a few genres, their words form vivid illustrations of their lives—both in suburban New Jersey and in the van, on the road—and their songs contain a sweeping swath of self-made meaning and self-deprecation, both in terms of production (lo-fi versus intricate production technique) and lyrical prowess. The Front Bottoms are so much more than the sum of their parts.
The album kicks off with “Flashlight,” which starts with a tasteful, simple acoustic riff; then, the first dance beat of the record drops and with it, an undeniable energy foments and refuses to subside throughout the rest of the album. Upon first listen, singer Brian Sella almost sounds a bit like a young Tom Delonge, with that certain whine to his voice, a quiver that smacks of youthful and earnest intimacy. Sella’s voice seems to fit his lyrics perfectly, creating a sense of honesty that causes fans to “trust” a band—that is, to buy into the story they’ve written for themselves and want to continue to follow this story and its writers as they mature. “Flashlight,” an ultra-catchy number that features trumpet work and handclaps over dance beats, establishes the pop sensibilities of the record, which are complimented by hilariously realist lyrical lines like, “she says a lot of the kids we graduated with are now homeless, which puts them in mad shady situations with mad shady people if not every day, than on an every-other-day basis.”
From there, the album progresses smoothly, holding consistent musical and lyrical themes throughout. The second song on the album, “Maps,” is just as catchy as the first cut and recalls The Talking Heads’s “Once In A Lifetime” with its imagery: “One day, you’ll be washing yourself with hand soap in a public bathroom and thinking, ‘how did I get here, where the hell am I?’” The demonstrative tapestry that Sella waves—that “show, don’t tell” illustrative quality that they hammered into you in high school English—becomes all the more vivid on songs like “Looking Like You Just Woke Up,” which starts with a super-specific list of a few simple things the narrator loves and “Father,” which presents the listener with the tragicomic metaphor of beating one’s own father with a baseball bat.
