Fyfe Dangerfield – Fly Yellow Moon

Having written about Guillemots' second album Red just over one and a half years ago I find myself, for the second time, trying to find context for Fly Yellow Moon outside the shadow of the band's masterful debut. Through the Windowpane was the sound of an endlessly inspired group of people projecting their ideas with an innocence that suggested they had no preconceptions or regard for how it might be received. Guillemots existed in their own world- there was no need for comparisons, no need for pigeon-holing of any sort. Those who were lucky enough to get sucked into it all found themselves completely surrendering to the childlike wonder of the songwriting, whether it was the technicality of the lush orchestral arrangements, the rumbling double bass lines or Fyfe Dangerfield's unrestrained vocalisations that first drew them in. It was never cool music, but it was the kind that could give you a genuine belly-ache. No one could deny the passion present.Three and a half years later, we're given the first solo record from the band's frontman. With Through the Windowpane having been a less collaborative writing effort than the definition of underwhelming that was Red, hopes were high that this might have been a return to the level of songwriting we knew Fyfe was capable of.Lines like "I can't help it if I'm happy, I can't help it if I'm happy not to be sad" are the kind of lines that make you sit back and question whether this is something you honestly want to be subjecting your ears to. This, coming from the guy who said of Coldplay, "I think with that kind of music I often like the melodies and things but I feel the production is what lets it down really rather than the songwriting. And the lyrics, I think some of Chris Martin's lyrics these days are getting pretty lame." It's fair to note that lyric-writing has never been Dangerfield's forte, but we used to be able to distract ourselves from any lines which might have been deemed cringe-worthy by concentrating on an epic ascending string arrangement or the ambient textures of a subtle keyboard line. On Fly Yellow Moon, everything is too painfully obvious to offer us that release. Whether it's the stadium-filling, reverb-drenched guitar at the start of 'Faster Than the Setting Sun', or 'Livewire', where the piano set atop fingerpicked acoustic guitar fills the record's quota for "heart-wrenching love songs" (and if we return to Cringe-Worthy Lyric Watch, 'Livewire' has a lot to offer: "There was a crack in your smile the day you were born. And you're out on the pull and it's making you yawn".)It's not all bad news. The opener, 'When You Walk in the Room', has some of the dorky eccentricity that's missing from the trite and overly pretty 'So Brand New' and 'Don't Be Shy', the messiness of the vocals and guitars harking back to the beautiful lo-fi aesthetic of songs like 'Annie Let's Not Wait'. The album's first single, 'She Needs Me', is another that breaks free of what seems to be, in general, the soundtrack to the onset of artistic stagnation. It's the kind of song you find yourself singing along to, believing in, without ever having to put a thought into why. In words from the song itself, "and it's ok." It seems as though Dangerfield relies on dense arrangements to distract from what is often subpar songwriting- whether it's a string section, screaming backing vocals or a complicated bass line- this is definitely a case where more is better.In short: this is not life-changing music. It's day-changing music at best, and we've come to expect more. Now, when someone asks me what happened to Guillemots, I find myself letting out a sigh. This is not how it was meant to be. There will be those who are still entranced by Dangerfield, but for those of us who aren't, we will just have to hope the three Guillemots members absent from this release have been overdosing on their respective musical areas of interest- world music, noise rock and hip hop/R&B- ready to give us some of that unique passion once again. "This could go in any direction. Any direction at all."

Buy the album from Amazon | [itunes link="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/high-on-the-tide/id348953827?uo=4" title="Fyfe Dangerfield ”“ Fly Yellow Moon" text="iTunes"]