90%
tl;dr: A memorable (but singular-minded) progressive rock classic. Fair to Midland at their best.
NOTE: The tracks after the backslashes are interludes.
Best tracks: All of them. Like I said, very similar-sounding stuff.
Fair to Midland's major-label debut is a masterpiece. This epic progressive rock quintet from Texas utilize soaring vocals and clever lyrics to wonderful effect, as is evident in their third studio album, Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True. The roaring opener "Dance of the Manatee" provides a strong canvas for the rest of the album to explore, and songs like "A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara" and "Walls of Jericho" do so with screaming glee. These musicians have clearly been doing this for a while, and while their earlier albums seemed a bit stylistically uncertain, this album asserts itself very confidently as an epic. While the titles of the tracks and the artwork of this album may at first make it seem a bit hard to take in, its coldly organic soundscapes and catchy (but not corny) choruses soon and envelop you and convert you to the Cult of Midland.
This album is flawlessly produced and mixed, leaving plenty of room for the subtleties of the music and unique song structure to shine. The lyrics are also quite interesting, with the most striking of the bunch being the words to the chorus of the album's closing piece, "Say When," which defiantly proclaim, "The way they left us all in the dark: The buried the sun, so I carried the torch." This album is truly a "you'd have to listen to it to understand" sort of album, and I urge you to do so.
However, I did not give this album over a 90% for a reason, a reason that can only become apparent after three or four spins of the album. When someone asks me to name the track I'm humming or drumming, and it's a track off this album, I hesitate. And then I ponder. Looking back on this album in retrospect, the tracks blend together in a large lump of chunky, flowing guitars and cheesy keyboards and the names of the songs dissolve into murky cesspools of doubt in my mind. Why is this? In my opinion, it's similarity between tracks. The tendency of this band to repeat their formula just a smidge too much on a single album is apparent now, but personally, I don't think it damages the album to too great a degree.
This album is flawlessly produced and mixed, leaving plenty of room for the subtleties of the music and unique song structure to shine. The lyrics are also quite interesting, with the most striking of the bunch being the words to the chorus of the album's closing piece, "Say When," which defiantly proclaim, "The way they left us all in the dark: The buried the sun, so I carried the torch." This album is truly a "you'd have to listen to it to understand" sort of album, and I urge you to do so.
However, I did not give this album over a 90% for a reason, a reason that can only become apparent after three or four spins of the album. When someone asks me to name the track I'm humming or drumming, and it's a track off this album, I hesitate. And then I ponder. Looking back on this album in retrospect, the tracks blend together in a large lump of chunky, flowing guitars and cheesy keyboards and the names of the songs dissolve into murky cesspools of doubt in my mind. Why is this? In my opinion, it's similarity between tracks. The tendency of this band to repeat their formula just a smidge too much on a single album is apparent now, but personally, I don't think it damages the album to too great a degree.
tl;dr: A memorable (but singular-minded) progressive rock classic. Fair to Midland at their best.
NOTE: The tracks after the backslashes are interludes.
Best tracks: All of them. Like I said, very similar-sounding stuff.
-Zhaboka
01. Dance of the Manatee
02. Kyla Cries Cologne / Pre-Versa
03. Vice/Versa
04. The Wife, the Kids, and the White Picket Fence
05. April Fools and Eggmen / Ciperion
06. A Seafarer's Knot
07. A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara
08. Walls of Jericho
09. Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
10. Upgrade^Brigade / When the Bough Breaks
11. Say When / Ozymandius
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM
02. Kyla Cries Cologne / Pre-Versa
03. Vice/Versa
04. The Wife, the Kids, and the White Picket Fence
05. April Fools and Eggmen / Ciperion
06. A Seafarer's Knot
07. A Wolf Descends Upon the Spanish Sahara
08. Walls of Jericho
09. Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes
10. Upgrade^Brigade / When the Bough Breaks
11. Say When / Ozymandius
DOWNLOAD FULL ALBUM
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