CD Review – The Felice Brothers
Celebration, Florida
Fat Possum Records
Like a less-screaming version of The Avett Brothers, The Felice Brothers bring everything to the table on their sometimes-raucous, sometimes-solemn, new record. Beginning with one of the best tracks of the year (certainly the best opening track of the year) “Fire at the Pageant” is a foot-stomper with the chorus that is not only sung by lead singer Ian Felice, but by a quartet of children. That makes the line “Everybody calm down/ Please stop shouting/ Go on, run, call 911/ Calm down, calm down, calm down” even creepier. The chaos continues with a brief tempo shift right in the middle of second verse. To this day, I still think the CD is skipping.
The rest of the album is like an audio blender of music with strange stories attached. The carnival-like atmosphere on “Honda Civic” encapsulates a tale of a bunch of degenerates who become enthralled with a Honda Civic. The moody piano-ballad “Container Ship” tells of a woman looking to find paradise, while “Ponzi” is set to a mid-tempo bass-driven lounge beat, which somehow evolves into a killer industrial rocker. “River Jordan” closes the disc with so many genres and instruments thrown in that I don’t have enough room to write them all.
Needless to say, The Felice Brothers are worth the listen, especially if you love the cacophony of early Avett Brothers.
