Perfect for pondering thoughts and memories of your existence, ‘Beyond The Neverglades’ album by Friendly Fire has got to be on your best alternative rock playlist, released on the 11th of November. From Jacksonville, US, this 8-track masterpiece will shake you from the core with minutes over minutes of post-punk melancholic heaven. Battling tragedies and a change of casts, this album was not easy to create, so the band members see it as a rebellious act of love, and has brought them real confidence to continue doing what they do best: Rocking! The album was a DIY experience, and we love the courage to make rock music feel in many ways very garage and well-sounding.
A collective creation about the sense of self and the self mirrored in whichever place you are in life, it seems it is of much importance to scrutinize our relative experience through our personal vehicles; our bodies, and how in the darkness we may perceive in our own little world, we are somehow sometimes blind to the hope we can find and cling on to in the universe. The bad describes that this album reflects what it is like to live in Jacksonville, a small town. The feelings nonetheless are essentially universal, and that’s what we love about this album: It makes you feel like you’re not alone. The overall sound of the album is sorrowful yet encouraging at the same time. It’s a timeless power tool to use when your feeling despair, You can just play this album, sink in hopelessness and then rise to glory at the end. The soundscape is a gloomy and despondent alternative rock base that is somehow lowkey in intensity. The vocals and the texture made with several electric guitar sounds are what make the intensity and infectious energy of the songs really make it a heavy alternative experience. There are many instances in which you feel like the album is nostalgic to the 90’s alternative sound and a teenage or coming-of-age feeling.
The musical arrangement is rich and layered in dark and light sounds that blend well together to form a sad but hopeful rock sound that perfectly matches the messages of the album. Most of the music pace is fast yet not posing as angry music, but rather very passionate and dark in emotions that ripple through the vocals. Explosive with energy and extremely dynamic with electric guitars, there are intense power chord guitars in most of the songs and the usage of two electric guitar sound effects that make amazing texture to the music, fast pace drums fixations, and prominent cymbals. The vocals are extremely packed with emotions and passion, and I bet that a real live performance will shake our tears out of our eyeballs! The storytelling lyrics are straight to the heart. We would’ve loved to hear more guitar solos because of how powerful the guitarist is, but we hopefully feel there will be more to come from the band in the near future
The names of the songs catch your attention, and the theme obviously stated within. The order of the songs definitely go from dark thoughts to powerful, uplifting ones. You must get with on this alternative train ride and get yourself sometimes with this great album!
