People have often wondered how I could judge an entire album based upon the first few seconds of it, but Fool Heavy will show you that it is an easier thing to do than you think. While I cannot count how many times I've pressed play only to quickly press stop, when I first pressed play with Fool Heavy I knew this would be good. Male and female vocals sing together about driving home drunk, and as they start off somewhat light they really kick in and become heavier, angrier in a sense as well. Oh yeah, and they name drop Quentin Tarantino, which was really the reason why when I was sent a link for this album I downloaded it instead of just casting it aside like so many others.
Most recently, I have heard bands such as Great Grandpa and Lone Kodiak that have the male/female vocals patterned in this similar style with rock music that is... Well, it's fuzzy, but it's also heavy. I almost always go to Weezer with this type of sound, but there is this math rock feel to it as well. It is that type of feeling where there is a lot going on but it presents itself in such a simple almost pop type of way that you can't fully grasp everything happening behind the scenes and have to just take it for what's on the surface. And taking this album at face value is not a bad thing because on the first initial listens it definitely stands out as being melodic; somehow angry and fun at the same time. (If you're going to take a press quote from this review, please use that one: "somehow angry and fun at the same time")
A song such as "Lil' Brains" has this great "10 Things I Hate About You" vibe to it, even though I can still hear a touch of Gwen Stefani in the vocals. As she sings through being done and onto the next one, a nod to the fighters of foo, we have those woo-hoo-hoo's that tend to get us through the bridge. At the same time, a song such as "Bruise" is a slower, acoustic jam but is totally worth listening to because of the message behind the lyrics.
What you have to understand about Fool Heavy is that this music itself is rare, it's special, and I in no way want to discount that. But at the same time, I really enjoy the lyrics here and overall feel of this album. A song such as "Avant Garbage" sings about the "hipster trash" and, to me, I don't just take this as a throwback to when music was better but also as a reflection of when society was better as well. Fool Heavy is not just calling out other musicians for their copycat style of music but they are also calling out people for being terrible and I love it.
Gusto is available at a Name Your Price Download here: https://foolheavy.bandcamp.com/album/gusto
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