ALBUM REVIEW: F.E.A.R. – Stand Atlantic
STAND ATLANTIC had the world at their feet. Debut Skinny Dipping had catapulted them into the spotlight, while its follow-up Pink Elephant showed a band cementing their place in the scene and broadening their sound and they were poised to tour it as much as they could. The rest, as they say, is history; a pandemic shut the world down and the band found themselves stuck at home for two years with every tour they attempted to book cancelled. Instead, STAND ATLANTIC threw caution and any notion of a plan to the wind and went into the studio; the end result of that is F.E.A.R. (Fuck Everything And Run), a boldly experimental album that, unlike its name, is fearless.
doomsday opens the album with an unflinching portrayal of vocalist Bon Fraser‘s mental health at the time and the chaos she was experiencing; the following 12 tracks plus outro trace the haphazard journey of a creative trying to keep their head above water in a pandemic. It’s obvious from the outset that this leans more heavily into the pop elements, including electronic drums and vocal effects amongst others, that they started playing with on Pink Elephant. Take the aforementioned opener with its synth flourishes, sampled hand claps and electronic drum breaks for instance; or the juddering, stop-start guitars of pity party that features electropop singer ROYAL & THE SERPENT.
On the other side of that, they still lean just as much into the rock and punk side of the pop-punk formula. The aforementioned pity party features crunching guitars in its choruses, while molotov [ok] is as its name suggests; an explosive, pit-inciting punk number with Fraser practically snarling her lines. On similar lines is deathwish (featuring NOTHING, NOWHERE), which fuses poppier sounds with a searing, stomping pop-punk chorus in spite of the featured emo rapper’s verse that leans into auto-tuned flows and samples.
It doesn’t always work; molotov [ok] might be all attitude and swagger but it’s short on memorable hooks, and the NOTHING, NOWHERE verse on deathwish is out of place on an otherwise somewhat heavier track. That said, F.E.A.R. works best when it fuses both elements and those risks pay off more often than they don’t. ROYAL AND THE SERPENT‘s higher register complements Fraser‘s own well and the chorus is as hook-laden as they come. nails from the back is a similar earworm, as is switchblade, and don’t talk to me balances an oh-oh bridge with synth and electronic interjections.
But all of this is missing the point; F.E.A.R. is first and foremost an album by and for STAND ATLANTIC themselves, with Fraser processing her own inner struggles with isolation and the band coming to terms with not being able to be out on the road. With that in mind, they set out to make the album they wanted to, with precious little – if any – regard to how it would be perceived outside of their tight-knit group. No matter whether that reception matters to them or not, F.E.A.R. is a fearless step into the unknown and a sonic exploration that broadens their horizons while retaining their core themes and their own sense of humour.
Rating: 7/10
F.E.A.R. is set for release on May 6th via Hopeless Records.
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