Formed in 2005, Floridian folk-punk band Fake Problems released their first album in 2007. They’ve not been slack since then, following How Far Our Bodies Go with It’s Great To Be Alive in 2009. A year and a half on and here’s their latest offering, Real Ghosts Caught On Tape.
Back in their early days Fake Problems (along with other folk-punk outfits like O Pioneers!!!, One Reason and even Defiance, Ohio) were regularly compared to Against Me!, a band whose commercial success was beginning to accelerate its ascendance – with the inevitable side effect of many early fans either drifting away from the band or outright decrying their new direction. For better or worse, attitudes and fanbases were changing.
I mention the Against Me! connection because, although I’ve always felt Fake Problems are a band unusual and talented enough to stand on their own eight feet, it’s interesting to see the ways in which the trajectory of their creative development is following that of their Gainesville predecessors. Both bands began their careers with lo-fi releases that could only be described as folk-punk: simple but hard-hitting tunes, just-so production, and earthy yet provocative lyrics and themes.
(This is not to put them in the same pot; there are many key differences. Against Me!’s Tom Gabel’s flair for songwriting developed earlier, for example, with their first album being a bona fide classic rather than simply a good record; Fake Problems’ Chris Farren has a knack for the personal-poetic that’s wildly distinct from Gabel’s early and more politicised lyrical subject-matter, and vocally Farren has a broader range and more classically strong voice, although both singers are unique and instantly recognisable.)
The second albums took a significantly different tack: Fake Problems, with It’s Great to be Alive, crammed the record full of almost every idea they could find. It’s a gloriously diverse album filled with a number of highly distinct songs, and shows how the band had taken leaps and bounds forwards as musicians. Ditto As the Eternal Cowboy, still today one of the most highly-regarded Against Me! releases. And then the third albums, Searching for a Former Clarity and Real Ghosts Caught on Tape respectively, both somewhat darker, more thoughtful and introspective – more mature, perhaps. And the connection is more than thematic, with both records showing restraint as well as exuberance in their songwriting, and holding together more obviously as albums rather than collections of songs.
And so, as much as the band or their fans (I count myself as one, of course) may hate me for saying it, the shadow of Against Me! still hangs over Fake Problems. But the analysis above is just one man’s opinion, and the product of following both bands’ careers very closely. And as I said from the outset, Fake Problems don’t need comparisons to be recognised as an excellent band.
Real Ghosts Caught on Tape focuses on the themes of disappointment and disillusionment, but does so with Farren’s trademark wit and the band’s usual sense of play. Opener ‘ADT’, for example, juxtaposes lyrics like “If home is where the heart is / I do not have a pulse” (simultaneously heartfelt and revelling in its melodrama) with a simple and hooky song that demonstrates subtle flair beneath that simplicity. It’s immediately followed with ’5678′ which leads with the fantastic lyric “5, 6, 7, 8, oh God is good but I am great’, an insincere arrogance that’s all the better for being delivered in a faux falsetto. Yes, Fake Problems are as playful and fun as ever, and the restraint exercised in the recording of this album helps bring that to the fore.
Other songs particularly worthy of mention include ‘Soulless’ with its 60s/70s party tune rhythm, ‘Complaint Dept’ which strongly recalls Vampire Weekend (ordinarily I would not mean that as a compliment), and ‘Ghost to Coast’, perhaps the most sincere song on the album and certainly its most outright confessional.
The old adage ‘ones to watch’ has applied to Fake Problems for many years, and still does, but it’s also safe to say that with Real Ghosts Caught on Tape the band have matured into something truly excellent. You owe it to yourself to give this record a listen.
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