Review Summary: Time to party!
While garage rock has never been one of the most commercially viable genres, the ‘00s revival has brought a fair number of bands who rapidly broke into the mainstream, achieving significant success. Interesting enough, the ones responsible were strategically placed on multiple continents and this might have been a main factor that led to the outburst. For example, you had The White Stripes & The Strokes in the US, The Hives in Europe, as well as The Vines in Australia. In the wake of their charting singles and strong cult following, several others have easily been spotted and pushed into the headlights over the following years: The Killers, The Datsuns, Jet, Arctic Monkeys or The Fratellis to name a few. However, just as fast, the market became saturated with that familiar sound, thus, by the end of the decade, many of them disbanded, others embraced different styles, while few of them aimlessly kept releasing the same tracks.
It is clear casual listeners needed a break, but the genre returned to its underground status. Since the French people have an affinity for garage rock/punk, you can always count on finding cool bands in the area. The indie group, Fuzzy Vox have been building their fan base for 5 years now and have returned with a 2nd full length,
No Landing Plan. The band made sure they get the right sound by working with Andy Brohard & Ryan Castle, who handled production for Rolling Stones, Jet, Wolfmother, etc., so the result is a catchy, half hour of power. They manically rip through the tracks, having a lot of fun in the process. As a result, cuts like ‘Distracted’, ‘Explosion of Love’ or ‘Told You Before’ share a bit of that snotty brat attitude, on top of stop-start rhythms and raspy vocals. What’s to appreciate is the decision to leave that raw sound instead of polishing it to purely maintain a vintage vibe.
Thankfully, Fuzzy Vox display some diversity on ‘Grow Evil’ and ‘Western’, the former boasting a heavier chorus and coda, where the distortion is cranked up, taking a break from that trademark twang. The cinematic ‘Western’ borrows some marching patterns and a hook that reminisces early Killers. It’s a nice change of pace and smoothly gives way to a few pop punk numbers on the second half of the LP. There, ‘I Got A Girl’ and ‘Charlie’ are the main highlights. The latter shares the band’s opinion on last year’s attacks over the Muhammad cartoons published in the Hebdo magazine, whereas ‘I Got A Girl’ is a spastic ditty that will sure make the fans shake their hips at gigs and parties.
In the end,
No Landing Plan successfully completes its main mission: to offer a good time. There’s no need to dissect it, because you’d only end up missing its point. The jangly tunes will make you dance, yet there’s something for those who like their garage rock/punk raw too. Since there’s always room for improvement, Fuzzy Vox are potent enough to continue to level up over the upcoming years and we should keep an eye on their output. Dig it.
