Review: Reel Big Fish ‘Candy Coated Fury’
When you pick up a Reel Big Fish album, you are picking it up knowing what to expect. Good ol’ fashioned Ska Punk that will make you want to dance around and wish you could play a brass instrument. Well, maybe that last bit is just me, but you can’t deny the danceability of their music. That being said, I didn’t go into the band’s latest effort, ‘Candy Coated Fury,’ expecting much more than some fun songs to toss onto my iPod for a day when I needed a pick me up. And it certainly doesn’t disappoint in that aspect.
Now, depending on how you look at it, that can be both a good and bad thing.
Let’s tackle the good first, shall we?
From start to finish, CCF never loses its fast paced tempo. Pairing its quick guitar, banging drums and shiny brass with the contrastingly angry lyrics– “You’re evil, and vicious, and cruel, and cold. That’s you, that’s you. You’re a wicked witch I wasted my time with. P.S. I hate you–” Reel Big Fish has created an album that will allow fans to vent while simultaneously putting them in a happy mood. It’s a rather interesting experience really, as the lyrics recall all the times I’ve ever wanted to punch someone in the face, and yet the instrumentation has me dancing in my chair.
Now, the bad.
The album gets quite stagnant about halfway through, all the songs starting to sound the same and I found myself yearning to get some sort of change. Whether it have been in the form of a ballad or a song that pushed the tempo even further, it wouldn’t have mattered, anything to break up the monotony that the album falls into. It isn’t necessarily a bad monotony, as every song still has me bobbing my head, but it starts to feel too safe and, honestly, there’s only so long you can feel like dancing before needing to take a break.
Lead vocalist Aaron Barrett stated that while writing this album, he tried to stay aware of just how danceable the songs were, wanting to create songs that would make listeners move. He succeeded in that and then some, serving up some sweetly candy coated fury in the form of ska dance tracks.
The only problem is that there is SO much candy coating that listeners will find themselves experiencing one helluva crash from the sugar high that this album supplies.
3/5
Tracks to check out: “Hiding In My Headphones” and their cover of When In Rome’s “The Promise.”
- Victoria Patneaude (Twitter/Tumblr)
Candy Coated Fury is out July 31st on Rock Ridge Music.
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