Five Iron Frenzy
All The Hype That Money Can Buy
5 Minute Walk
This is one of those bands that churches promote as “cool Christian music,” and it’s OK for kids to wear their T-shirts and dye their hair blue. Five Iron Frenzy is a very upbeat, peppy, and uplifting ska band. The album is solid and the lyrics are catchy, but the band relies too much on gimmicks. Generic Latin ska beats and the occasional big, majestic choruses are just two of the standards that FIF uses to fill out their cheesy, happy, silly ska niche. I hate to say it, but these guys simply don’t have the technical prowess of the Aquabats or their ability to make silly superhero gimmicks seem cool. But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a lousy album. “The Phantom Mullet” rocks pretty nicely, even though I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. “Fahrenheit” is a song that tackles bigotry and hits pretty hard. And I loved the cover of “It’s Not Unusual.” There is a good mix of praise songs and other songs. I’m sure this record will be a hit at contemporary churches.
Five Iron Frenzy, P.O. Box 2771, Denver, CO 80201
