There’re some bands that surpass the day-to-day shrapnel that so often seems to be significant in music. They simply transcend the bouffant mullets, neon vests and Fisher Price synths – which isn’t to say their art is any more precious, more that they’d rather get their heads down and retreat to craft a stirring opus before freeing it upon the world.
With little or no fanfare, London’s pastoral folk newcomers Fanfarlo have done just that with ‘Reservoir’. Following years of clasping to a DIY ethos – an understandable move for any band writing songs this personal – it’s now time to let the talent do the talking.
Fanfarlo retreated to Connecticut last year to assemble their orchestral cannon, and
in doing so have produced one of the most soul-bearing albums you’re likely to hear all year. ‘Reservoir’ collects their songs into a debut built on necessity and outright sincerity, essential fundamentals that grace all the best bands’ works.
Opening with ‘I’m A Pilot’, ‘Reservoir’ instantly packs a familiar punch, and will do so for anyone who remembers being dazzled by Arcade Fire’s ‘Funeral’ upon its release. It’s an inescapable comparison that can be heard throughout – not that it’s likely to put you off. With its dusty piano strikes and Simon Balthazar’s David Byrne-circa-‘79 vocals leading what sounds like a rhythmic chain gang march, ‘Reservoir’s openings build and build.
‘Ghosts’ follows, connecting a string-laden soul groove to their vast instrumentation, doing so without overpowering the infinitely delicate edge to the song. ‘The Walls Are Coming Down’ betters it, improbably: all rolling drums, trumpet bursts and prickling mandolins, it immediately brings to mind Neutral Milk Hotel at their most playful. Soon ‘Drowning Men’ and ‘If It Is Growing’ prolong the album’s feeling of grandiose greatness, the former their most valiantly bold song yet and easily the match of anything the aforementioned Canadians have produced, the latter a sparsely downbeat strum expanding on their already-heightened sensitivity.
Fanfarlo have mastered the ability to merge a sincere melancholy with a passion that really connects, strings zapping you like electric currents in the sea of kitchen sink instrumentation leading Balthazar’s open-book vocal refrains. ‘Reservoir’ is ample testimony of their talents, and marks the long-awaited arrival proper of one of the country’s most promising (not so) new bands.
8/10
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Read an exclusive Fanfarlo interview on ClashMusic.com HERE
