If a band uses a glockenspiel and happens to perform lush, loping music punctuated with pounding bursts of brass and percussion, and intricate instrumentation not normally heard in a pop music context, it’s gonna be compared to The Arcade Fire. And that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. Nor is it entirely accurate or fair. Reservoir is the debut album by Fanfarlo, a band from London that plays the kind of intelligent, orchestrated indie-folk-pop that lures me in like the proverbial moth to a flame. Like chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, I find this band’s music impossible to resist. What’s even more amazing to me is that they manage to sustain that irresistibility not just on one brilliant song like “The Walls are Coming Down” (the obvious choice for the HMSOD — but when have I ever pandered to the obvious?), but across fifteen. Short songs, long songs, quiet songs, raucous songs… I guarantee if you tried to cherry-pick this album you’d soon wind up with every song and then you’d find yourself searching online for three very obscure, limited edition non-LP singles.
Fanfarlo first came to my attention when I caught their crazy video for (again) “The Walls are Coming Down” on MTV’s 120-Minute wannabe show, Subterranean. The video features the band performing while, dangling upside down overhead, escape artist Roslyn Walker performs his version of Houdini’s Hanging Straitjacket Escape. Coincidentally, a few days later a musical care-package arrived from Ann Arbor with Reservoir included. I didn’t even put two-and-two together until the “The Walls are Coming Down” began to play.
To be honest, I would have been perfectly happy to add just that one song to my jukebox playlist and call it a day. But like the Jon Auer cd (which was also part of the care-package) I found every song on the CD completely mesmerizing and, like a good steak dinner, I didn’t want this delicious feast to end.
To be honest, I would have been perfectly happy to add just that one song to my jukebox playlist and call it a day. But like the Jon Auer cd (which was also part of the care-package) I found every song on the CD completely mesmerizing and, like a good steak dinner, I didn’t want this delicious feast to end.
And who knows… maybe this album is every brilliant musical idea Simon Balthazar and his band mates ever had, and now they’re done. They’ll spend the rest of their careers trying to replicate the beauty and brilliance of Reservoir. But I doubt it. An album this strong, this complete, isn’t a fluke. It’s a promise of more great music to come. So save your cherry-picking for another time ’cause your basket ain’t big enough this time around. After much debate, the Happy Medium Song of the Day is “Fire Escape.” (Please use the comments box to share your thoughts.)