When you ride out, it can get wild and the laws change. You have to be adaptive and wily. You stand out and you have to blend in, but not in a way common folk understand.
Fraudband changed the rules, writing whole albums without lines, like soundtrack skeletons that never beat to a movie. Sometimes sun-bleached bones can look the same to someone who has not been out on the plain for too long. But Fraudband tell stories with sinister angles and ghost-trap memories.
Everyone needs a soundtrack to get out of town, especially when you're on a one-way ride. You've got Fraudband's Blinkered Vision and Blurred Horizons.
You can listen there, while you read here.
"You Never Said" opens the album with an easy out and just the right kind of overdrive. The drums belie the frenetic intentions, while the guitars keep their cool then catch up as it pulls in to refuel.
"Better Loosen Up" gets a little dirtier, revealing the album's intentions. It's more distorted and a little more sinister, and while there is a whole lot of space and more light in the second half, you can tell where they're headed.
"Little Joys" starts with a grudging reluctance, but finally opens to the theme of its title with some curvaceous guitar work. But sometimes when you're this far out of town, little things get lost on the road, and a whole lot of things start looking the same. But there are always small differences that you have to keep track of even if they seem like they are going to "Let you away".
"You Confuse Me" sits on a peak in the middle of the album, all distant and hazy and blurred. Even with a double take, you don't know what it is, but it's sitting at an advantage. The drums know where it's at, while the guitars take their time to size it up then lope up to the backline. They keep up the freneticism until the tom resets the pace with about 30 seconds to spare.
When you have crossed this many lines you're more prepared for "What Comes Next". You're accustomed to the territory and it's apart of who you are. This darker track fits where it belongs on this album -- right at the climax as it changes like a shapeshifter.
"Getting Up" is like driving through a bad headache and is challenged with the right amount of counter-menace that takes control and puts everything back in its place. But some things are difficult to beat unless you get up enough pace.
"On a Rant" starts with looping guitars that emulate its title, going broadside on the plain. Again the lines are blurred and the vision is not resolved by the end.
"Losin' It" sways and distorts, with heavy repetition that is right in place. It swings and changes, but it knows what it wants and how it's going to get there. You don't want to get in its way.
"Making Things Better by Making Them Worse" outlines the paradox inherent in this album. Like a narrative arc, this song introduces new instrumentation on its longest track that brings its resolution. Like a fitting conclusion, it encapsulates everything this album has collated, but is left still standing with a story to tell, even if it is dark and distorted.
Fraudband do not brandish their identity in lyric or likeness. They stand out when you don't expect it, but for the most, they're forbiddingly understated. Like an exile, there isn't rhyme for justification. Instead, this album embodies malefactor.
You can get your copy here: https://fraudband.bandcamp.com/album/blinkered-vision-and-blurred-horizons
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