Winston's Zen

SINGLE REVIEW: Join Us Records – 29th Sept 2008 – CD, 7” & Download

A review of Kicking and Screaming, the second single taken from Funeral For a Friends fourth album Memory and Humanity. This article was written by Winston's Zen for Altsounds, the original posting can be found here.

---

For Funeral for a Friends early fans yearning for a return to their screaming post hardcore roots the title of the Welsh Rockers next single may be a little misleading. So let’s get this straight from the start. Although the guitars of Roberts and Smith have certainly rediscovered some of their beef since the overtly mainstream offerings that came from 2007’s Tales Don’t Tell Themselves there’s none of that trademark screaming present here. Instead Matt Davies’ vocals appear flattened by a one dimensional melody, as he struggles bravely to deliver lyrical platitudes such as “the grass is greener on the other side” with enough vigour to pass them off as actual sentiment.

What there is however, is a reasonably gruff riff, that virtually survives the mauling thrown at it by the tracks edgeless production, a rolling toe-tapper of a bassline, and a vaguely Foo Fighter-esque aura that presumably goes some way to signifying the bands intended direction on their fourth LP, from which this single is taken. It’s probably a logical route to take, but one that will only really work with better lyrical content and rawer production values than this.

Reviewed by WINSTON’S ZEN for AltSounds

---

Thanks once more to AltSounds for supplying the material. Look out for more reviews, and interviews coming as part of this ongoing collaboration with the online music community. Head on by and check them out, there's a lot of people doing good stuff over there.


As ever, here's the video to Kicking and Screaming so you can make up your own mind.

Back soon,
Winston

Links
Buy Kicking and Screaming from Amazon
Buy Memory and Humanity from Amazon
Download Kicking and Screaming from 7digital
Funeral For a Friends Homepage
Funeral For a Friend on MySpace
Listen to Funeral For a Friend on Last.fm