Fiction - In Real Life EP

But it has some '10s flair, too - overlapping synths beneath the melodic focal point, spaced out, lamenting guitar strums and traces of trance and chillwave. Plus, the pointed discussion of over-interconnectedness and over-stimulation on the great "News & Weather" ("I'm addicted to the news and weather/I'm addicted to sports and culture/I'm addicted to the information") is decidedly 2014, not 1984, even if the delivery recalls the nervous tension of David Byrne's best moments.

That said, it's clear Fiction take most of their musical cues from the Reagan Administration (or Thatcher, take your pick). The burping bass and alternately gurgling and chirping keyboards from the chipper "Staying Still" would be perfect in a Duran Duran deep cut. Then there's that hypnotically pulsing bass in "Lonely Planet" and the assertive guitar stabs in "Naming of Things" straight out of many great post punk songs.

But it all comes back to In Real Life's best song, "Morning Song." The twirling keyboard in the first half is the best hook Tear for Fears never wrote. You could listen to this EP and simply play "spot the influence" (or, if you wanted to be snarky about it, "spot the place where they ripped So-and-So off.") and you'd be missing the point. Yes, Fiction borrow heavily from '80s music. However, it borrows from so many sources and, more importantly, updates and coalesces with modern EDM styles in such an effective manner, that it feels more like a well-researched thesis than a plagiarized freshman essay. It's likely the band members of Fiction don't remember the decade they worship, but that isn't stopping them from writing (admittedly great) songs as if they lived through it.