Fang Island/ Fang Island

Fang Island
Fang Island
(Sargent House)

Right from the initial bursts of the firework explosions which get this album from Fang Island up and running, you can tell you’re going to be in for something a little bit different in the ensuing half hour.
With ‘classic rock’ guitar riffs and glorious group harmonies the main tools at the heart of everything good in this collection, the whole formula makes for a genuinely upbeat, rewarding listen from start to finish.
Considering the Brooklyn quintet comprises three guitarists, you’d be forgiven for thinking that things would sound a bit overcrowded in places. As it happens, Fang Island have honed their sound so that this doesn’t even come close to becoming an issue, with everything set up to sound calculated, cannily put-together and well, huge.
Songs like ‘Daisy’ and ‘Davey Crockett’ have so many parts to them that they’re destined to be this year’s closest things to rock symphonies, while there are elements of ‘Careful Crossers’ and ‘Sideswiper’ which have been crafted to the point where the guitars are simply singing for themselves, alongside an utterly solid rhythm section.
This album is the soundtrack to that house party where there’s a guy with a guitar, in the middle of the room, surrounded by hundreds of friends, gathered around him in an all-singing, all-dancing circle of mayhem. Fang Island have plugged that guy in and invited us all to the party. Everyone’s smiling.