Album Review

Fake Problems – It’s Great To Be Alive

• 25th Mar 2009

Fake Problems fall somewhere between redneck blues and aggressive alt-country. Smelling of more than a smidgen of hayseed Dixie and bolstering up the vocals with all the aplomb of Modest Mouse. It’s a 12 track onslaught that bowls along from one to another at a relentless pace.

The gritty opener ‘1234’ has a whiff of irony and comes over as the musical version of the animation movie ‘team america’. ‘The Dream Team’ has a bucket load of sarcastic handclaps in a show of tongue in cheek jingoism.

‘Don’t worry baby’ throws in a bunch of brass and the band more than show their metal at being able to step away from their staple guitar schedule. It’s a positive stomp-along but the harshness of the vocals drag any inclination away that this could be their ‘dance floor’ wig-out!!

This album is raw as you like. Like your first delve into sushi, you’re either gonna carry on with it or bin it. That’s how reflective I would judge this piece of work. When you’ve ploughed through it you’ll recognise the exhaustion it’s put you through, such is it’s intensity and drive. For me it lacks variation and imagination musically to really hail it as something special but it will definitely have it’s audience