Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

A lonely distorted riff kicks things off on FEWS’ sophomore album. You expect it to explode into this noisy behemoth, but instead the drums and subsequently the bass gently fade in. Almost as an afterthought. That’s because FEWS do what they want to, not what you expect them to. Then this shimmering riff shifts everything into a higher, shoegaze-y gear, before it all falls away and lulls you into this false sense of quiet... which happens to be the name of the song. It’s quite the opening statement.

And it’s a great start to a great album. One that is filled with kraut-y rhythms that hypnotize, constantly shifting, swirling and spiraling riffs, hazy vocals and an overall dark yet surprisingly poppy atmosphere. Things even get outright poppy on ‘Suppose’ while their post-punk flair gets turned all the way up in darker songs like ‘Limits’ and ‘Anything Else’.

There’s a lot going on on ‘Into Red’ and all of it is good. Call it shoegaze, post-punk, krautrock, whatever... just make sure you play it as loud as you can.

Track listing:

1. Quiet
2. Paradiso
3. More Than Ever
4. Suppose
5. Limits
6. Business Man
7. 97
8. Anything Else
9. Over
10. Fiction