Review of Fred – Leaving My Empire
I’ve been listening this to nigh on a month now and still find it very hard to put into words what I think of this album. This would be their fourth studio album or Fred 4.0 with “Can’t Stop, I’m being Timed”, “Making Music, So You Don’t Have To” and “Go God Go” leading the Fred story to it’s current incarnation. Fred are a tsunami of fun, upbeat, pop based hook driven band from Cork who with Go God Go found the balance between fun and commercial existence that put them firmly on the map with massive radio play of catchy tunes like Skyscrapers, Running and Good One. Could they emulate it.
I quite liked that version of Fred and at first listen through this album my first thought is, oh dear god they’ve matured! I was expecting more of the fun, upbeat style of ‘Go God Go’ which has garnered them such attention previously. The start of the album seems to progress upon the sound they were going for in the track ‘The Lights’ from the previous album.
The first song ‘If Not Now When‘ which is kind of a bridge between old and new Fred, the album then goes on this more mature and haunting keys and vocals with tracks like ‘The Life Behind‘, ‘Somewhere Else‘ and ‘Eleven‘. Musically Fred are pushing themselves and that is to be applauded, I imagine Eleven will be amazing live with crowd interaction. The cutback ‘Stereoscope‘ starts softly and builds into a powerful finish.
‘Fears And Remedies‘ is a another powerful swirling song that is as beautiful vocally as it is musically as the album kicks up a notch taking this beautiful song and following it with ‘Trial By Fire‘ which is a track which makes me think, “hello old Fred”, upbeat, fun and catchy it’s exactly what I was looking for from this album. It’s followed quickly by ‘Everything‘ and ‘We Are The City Now‘ as the album closing kicks things up a beat and gives me a material I yearned for. It’s not that fun Fred is dead, they were just dormant for a while and pushing their boundaries musically.
For me this is an album of two halves. Fred pushed the envelope in the first half and unleashed their fun side in the second half. I would call that a perfectly balanced and executed album. Thoroughly enjoyable album with music for all moods and situations. I expected another Go God Go, and bigger the fool me for expecting Fred to stand still and churn out a repeat. They have pushed themselves and their sound forward and whilst maybe this album isn’t as commercial for radio play it’s every bit as good as their previous material.
Favourite song : Trial By Fire