Fidlar “Surviving The Dream”

Fidlar are a band that we really got into with their previous release Almost Free which saw the band expand their rawer, surf punk sound into something with a bit more melody and diversity. It’s been a long 5 years since that release so we were really looking forward to listening to this album.

The opening two tracks (“Fix Me and Low”) actually seem intent on appealing to their hardcore fans (in both sense) as they’re pretty aggressive punk rock songs. They also seem to tie in with the bands overarching image of being a ‘party’ punk band.

Things then change with “Sad Kids” where the album hits a brilliant run of great songs. On “Sad Kids”, the band allow themselves to take a breath and deliver a far more melodic song. The punk energy fires up again on “Down N Out” but this time the melody is driven by an almost Ramones esque beat and chanted vocals, great stuff. That more mature sound that we mentioned appearing on Almost Free comes back on “Orange County” a track that actually has us recalling later day Jawbreaker. Although the song that really reminds us of that band is ”Change”, which is a classic US punk song delivered with melody and a hint of fun. The run of songs with the focus on melody rather than aggression is continued with “Break Your Heart” which is more alternative nighties hit than a punk song.

Those early fans of the band who want a bit more guitar and attitude in their songs are still more than catered for with tracks like “Dog House” and “I Don’t Want To Do This”. But if we’re honest the most aggressive song we liked was “Get Off My Wave” which actually has a Beastie Boys License to Ill era feel about it to us. That willingness to throw something in a bit different is also shown by “Nudge” which alternately goes from spoken word melody to hardcore punk every couple of minutes. That’s all before the band wrap things up with possibly their most melodic and commercial song ever, “Hurt”. It’s a breezy acoustic track, which we absolutely love and could be a huge hit (but it would be interesting to know what their hardcore fans think of it).

In some ways, that sums up our feelings on Fidlar and this album. They’re probably not our typical type of band, perhaps a bit too hardcore punk for us. But they also have this absolute knack of just doing something a bit different and bringing an alternative edge to their sound. We cant help thinking that the songs that we love are probably the ones that their ‘original fans’ like the least! So, read into it what you like, but we think this is an excellent album and certainly one of the best punk rock albums we’ve heard this year.