A while ago, I figured that the guys in FIDLAR would be rock’s great white hope. They had a lot of attitude, energy, and punk musicianship that resulted in really great material. Well, almost four years since their sophomore record, they’ve returned and the results are near disastrous. Starting things off, the hip-hop ripoff/homage “Get Off My Rock” throws one for a loop. You really start to wonder what the hell were these guys thinking. I miss rock and roll, not experimentation. This band is too new to want to experiment and piss off their fanbase that grew to like them because of a previous sound.
These guys used to sound really good. Since then, they’ve degenerated into a wannabe band. “Can’t You See” has an almost TV On The Radio feel to it, and not much of their previous records left here. The song isn’t terrible, but under another band it would carry more gravitas. When they go with an upbeat almost Smash Mouth type beat on “By Myself,” one is almost willing to turn the iPod off so they don’t have to hear any more of this garbage. I absolutely hate when rock bands go for the Coachella crowd and flirt with rappers, R&B, and drum machines. “Flake” and “Too Real” are the closest things the band comes to sounding like themselves, but at this point, why would you bother.
The almost lovey dovey duet of “Called You Twice” with K Flay is just bad – skippable and unnecessary. “Too Real” is decent enough and is enough to keep the listener’s attention, even through the political lyrics. If they had stuck with more like this, the whole record would’ve turned out better. “Good Times Are Over” is a good straight-ahead rock song, something this whole record should’ve been. It’s only February and this is already one of the most disappointing discs of the year.
FIDLAR is a band that was great but got bored with their current sound. It’s cool to shift things around and do something different, but when it’s not your area of expertise, there’s just some things that you shouldn’t try to mess with.