REVIEWS:
Five Iron Frenzy isn't quite as accessible as they may seem. Their absolute biggest strength was their melodic sense; it's rare for a FIF song *not* to contain a hook, and the primary composers, Scott Kerr and Dennis Culp, both knew what they were doing most of the time. Many songs owe their emotional power (!) as much to the music as to the lyrics. However, the make-or-break factor for many would probably be Reese Roper, the lead vocalist/main lyricist. His nasal voice is an acquired taste; he sounds to me like an odd mixture of the pitch and range of Jon Anderson (from Yes) and the tone color of Bob Dylan (which is probably a lousy description). His lyrics are another factor; I generally (but not always) agree with his lyrics and like his style, but I can easily imagine why someone wouldn't. Most of his songs tend to be of one of three categories: Christian songs, political songs, and silly songs. FIF's album titles were also strange; Our Newest Album Ever is actually their second oldest, and Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo is actually their fourth, fifth, or sixth (depending on if you include live albums and/or EPs or not). FIF had a strange sense of humor that surfaced on all their albums. On the downside, FIF can get very formulaic very quickly; their early music tends to fall into a pretty predictable ska-core style, and their later music is even more restricted. All The Hype That Money Can Buy and maybe Quantity Is Job 1 EP are the only releases with much diversity at all. They never did more than three "ballads" per album, and some of their albums never mellow out.
For some reason, FIF has a lot of Big Fans. It must be the lyrics; most fans tend to focus on Reese's lyrics as if they were the only good thing about the band, even tho the melodic skills are exceptional. Many of these Big FIF Fans tend to disagree with me (and other non-fans) strongly on which albums are the best. I'm not a Big FIF Fan, so don't expect unmitigated praise in any of these reviews. I really enjoy the 1997-2000 period, and I like some of their other stuff as well, but no band is perfect. Before flaming me, please keep in mind that the fact my opinion is in HTML format doesn't make it any more right or wrong than yours. On George Starostin's site, he always puts in a disclaimer about how "this page was not written from the perspective of a (band) fanatic and is generally not intended for narrow-perspective (band) fanatics". That's true here, too. I don't claim to be a very objective reviewer; I judge the music simply for the music and not for anything else, but everyone's opinions are different. I'd like to think I'm doing a favor for the band's reputation, but I may be wrong. Also, I'm not planning on covering Brave Saint Saturn, a gloomier side project by several FIF members, since I've heard a few of their songs and they don't interest me much. I'm probably not going to get the rarities compilation Cheeses, either, since it's intended mostly for hardcore fans only. (Someone needs to do a "greatest-hits" compilation for FIF within the next few years.) Also note that I've intentionally avoided mentioning the lyrics on most of the songs; most FIF reviews focus on the lyrics, and I felt they were musically good enough that a lot of their songs would hold up from the musical end, too.
Lineup: Reese Roper (vocals), Keith Hoerig (bass), Andrew Verdecchio (drums), Scott Kerr (guitar), Micah Ortega (guitar), Leanor "Jeff The Girl" Ortega (saxophone), Nathaniel "Brad" Dunham (trumpet), Dennis Culp (trombone, occasional lead vocals). Scott Kerr was later replaced by Sonnie Johnston (formerly of Jeffries Fan Club, a band I've never heard of). Surprisingly for such a large band, there were no other member changes. Micah and Leanor are cousins. Dennis Culp really shouldn't be mentioned last; he's probably the main musical creative force in the band.
--Alex Harris
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
I'm writing this review on the day after Five Iron Frenzy's final show; in tribute to them, I decided to review them on MJA. I'm starting from the beginning, so FIF fans (some of whom I know online) can watch in agony as I underrate every album of theirs that I have. :-) This is their first album; while it seems to be a fan favorite, it certainly pales in comparison to their next album. The two guitars usually are just doing the same things ("Milestone" is a major exception, but outside of that and a few other places, why have two guitarists if they just do the same things?) and the horns are often gratingly out of tune, making for a tough listen (except on the songs where they're not as dominant). Nevertheless, some of the songs are very well-written, and there is no shortage of energy on the album.
The high points for me are "Cool Enough For You" which is actually a two-part ska song, "Where Zero Meets Fifteen" and "A Flowery Song" with their more moderate tempos providing respite from the mostly high-speed music, and "Third World Think Tank" with its really strange stylistic shifts. Other songs have particularly off-key horns; in some cases they're saved by the energy factor and are thus unnoticeable ("The Old West"), but in some cases the song just sounds needlessly dissonant ("I Feel Lucky"). In the sillier department, "Arnold And Willis And Mr. Drummond" is an enjoyable song about a well-known 70's TV show, while "Combat Chuck" is so bad that the band themselves have disowned it. "Beautiful America" has some absolutely hilarious vocals in the verses but is bogged down by generic anti-America protest lyrics; while Americans have their share of human flaws, people from other nations aren't perfect, either, and ascribing universal human vices exclusively to Americans reeks of generic "punk rakw!!!!" prejudice. (misspelling intentional) As for the other songs ("Anthem", "Faking Life", and the cover of Amy Grant's (!) "Everywhere I Go"), most of them really aren't too notable in my opinion. There is absolutely nothing resembling a ballad on here at *all*, so it's pretty monotonous.
I didn't mention the lyrics much because I'm not much of a lyrics-oriented person, I guess; plus, every other review I've seen of FIF was almost entirely lyrics-based, and I thought it would be more fun to review FIF based on the music. Christian third-wave ska bands are not going to interest most other reviewers, anyway.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
I can't believe I never mentioned "Amalgamate" in my Upbeats And Beatdowns review! It's one of the better songs on Upbeats And Beatdowns, after all!
Anyway, here's where things come together for Five Iron Frenzy, even if by now it's actually one of their oldest albums ever. The songwriting has improved, the horns are in tune, and the band seems to have diversified a little (the key words being "a little"). The guitars are no longer playing the same parts all the time; often they complement each other and make the sound a lot more interesting. As for the individual songs, "Handbook For The Sellout", "Superpowers", and "Blue Comb '78" demonstrate much of what they have learned since their last album, bringing a firmer grasp of hooks along with them, as well as thicker, more dynamic arrangements. "Where Is Micah?" and "Oh, Canada" continue the tradition of silliness, but don't seem to have much of a point outside of silliness. Even the songs I don't care much for, like "Fistful Of Sand", "Suckerpunch", and "Banner Year", I can still stand due to the fact that they aren't boring or unlistenable. The song "Second Season" shows excellently that FIF doesn't always need to rock out to sound good; it's actually a very nice ska ballad with an almost tropical air to it. However, right afterwards comes the aggressive rocker "Litmus" to remind you who you're listening to. "Most Likely To Succeed" is another good song in Typical FIF Style...
...however, these songs (except for maybe "Handbook...") are put to shame by the closing "Every New Day". Maybe it's just my religious beliefs, but I think this may be my favorite song in the FIF catalog. Actually, it's probably not that; every Big FIF Fan I've ever met seems to regard it highly (strangely enough, I usually don't agree with fan choices for favorite FIF songs). There's a good reason, too; the words and music fit together perfectly, and they pull off some amazing song-structure twists within the song; these guys have got talent, and this song makes it obvious. The melody in the coda is easily the album's best with its wonderfully joyous Christianese feeling. (Yes, it's an optimistic song; people may feel free to hate it.) But wait! That's not all! After four minutes of silence, a hidden song, "The Godzilla Song", comes up, and if your sense of humor is like mine, it's one of their funniest songs.
This is probably my worst-written review ever, but I've had this CD for over five years now, and it's hard for me to hear this album for just the music. Besides, even if I said they had diversified a little, this album is still formulaic, and formulaic music is very, very hard to review.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
In the last review, "Christianese" was supposed to be in HTML brackets with a slash before it, as if it was denoting the end of the Christianese in the review. :-) I hope nobody was confused. Either way, I actually rate this higher than Our Newest Album Ever, if only due to consistency. The better songs on here are as good as the better songs on the previous album, and the worse songs are still listenable. Plus, we even get more stylistic diversity than before, too, hinting a little at their future style. I will now proceed to describe this EP's songs in short, choppy sentences.
"My Evil Plan To Save The World" is a great opener in Typical FIF Style. "All That Is Good" is probably the weakest track on the album, but as usual, listenable. "Dandelions" is an okay "ballad" (note the quote marks) that, despite fans' pleas to the contrary, isn't anywhere near as good as "Every New Day" or even "Second Season" from Our Newest Album Ever. (Okay, that one wasn't short or choppy. I give up.) "One Girl Army" is an excellent minor-key cut-time rocker, for those who know about music theory. "Sweet Talkin' Woman" is, believe it or not, a cover of the ELO song; it doesn't sound too different from the original. "When I Go Out" is incredibly short. "Get Your Riot Gear" actually combines Typical FIF Style with swing music for an unusual blend that manages to work a lot better than it sounds on paper. Finally, "The Untimely Death Of Brad" contains lots of stylistic shifts that seem to roughly mirror the lyrics; it's about an Internet rumor about the death of trumpeter Brad Dunham (which never happened). Too bad the "These Are Not My Pants Rock Opera" at the end (I am not making this up) hardly bears repeated listenings.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Five Iron Frenzy has an, um, unusual live personality. At least on this album, they're not a very good live band. The live versions of the songs never really add much to the studio versions (e. g. they're generally inferior to the studio versions). However, their sense of humor really comes to the fore in their live shows (and borders on obnoxious at times; don't say you weren't warned). Like on Upbeats And Beatdowns, the horns tend to be out of tune too much (e. g. all the time), and the vocals tend to be a little sharp (yes, I mean that Reese Roper sings *higher* than he's supposed to). The packaging is awful; it looks like a badly done bootleg. The song list on the back isn't even right; "Where 0 Meets 15" and "Superpowers" should be traded.
I won't mention every song on here, but "One Girl Army" starts off with a cover of Europe's "The Final Countdown" (and then goes into a really sloppy version of "One Girl Army"). The album then gets a bit more professional-sounding and listenable for the next several songs, along with some comments between songs that are either really funny or really obnoxious depending on your mood or personality. The song choices are a mixed bag (e. g. they play a pretty average selection, in my opinion). Believe it or not, they actually play "Kingdom Of The Dinosaurs", a hilarious hidden track from Quantity Is Job 1, as an intro to "Arnold, Willis, And Mr. Drummond" (which, believe it or not, actually sounds just as good here as in the original). "Superpowers" is prefaced by the Cure's "Close To Me", but like "One Girl Army", the intro is the only interesting thing about the live version. At the beginning of "Blue Comb '78", Roper highlights the band's biggest fault: they hardly ever slow down, which I really wish they'd do more.
Three songs from the next release, All The Hype That Money Can Buy, are previewed here: The cover of Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" is pretty faithful to the original (of course, I've only heard the original a few times, since they don't play it much on the oldies station). "A New Hope" is an excellent song that would get even better on the album (and even better on a later live album, but I'll get to that another time); it's one of their few successful forays into "heavy" music, and it manages to 1) rock and 2) be emotionally resonant at the same time (much like Procol Harum's "Conquistador"). I'll go into it more in my All The Hype review. "Ugly Day" is a pretty cool song, too, but I don't feel like saying much about it.
In short: get this if you're really interested in experiencing what a live FIF concert must have been like, but otherwise, stick with the studio albums (unless you're a hardcore fan, of course). Note that this is the first sentence that I've mentioned old guitarist Scott Kerr leaving and new guitarist Sonnie Johnston replacing him; it's hard to tell on this album.
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
Like I said in the last review, old guitarist Scott Kerr was replaced by Sonnie Johnston. This wouldn't seem to change much, except that Kerr handled a lot of the composing originally, so now trombonist Dennis Culp dominates it. Surprisingly, the songs are just as good as before; they didn't suffer a loss of quality. Also, this album is the only album (note that I didn't say "EP") that doesn't suffer from a lack of diversity; in fact, All The Hype is FIF's most diverse album ever (and for that reason, most Big FIF Fans seem to think it's their weakest album, but they're WRONG!).
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" is a high-quality opener that the CD says contains a synthesizer, but I've listened to it a bajillion times trying to hear one and can't. "Me Oh My" is a really fast, happy song that I really like. "Solidarity", the high point of the first half of the album, shows the first diversion from the normal style: Latin ska. They do it really well, too, but it didn't seem to become a fan favorite like the 80's metal parody "The Phantom Mullet": replace the lyrics with something more serious and replace the obviously 80's elements with equally dated 00's elements, and you've got the style of nearly every song on the next two albums! "The Phantom Mullet" also proves something surprising: guitarist Micah Ortega is actually pretty good (altho definitely not on the same level as, say, Steve Howe). FIF then returns to their more normal style with "Ugly Day", the first "ballad" on the album. Like the previous 4 songs, it's also enjoyable and catchy. This version certainly beats the live version (of course, that goes without saying). "Fahrenheit" isn't quite as good as the previous five songs, but it's still pretty good (and it may be one of the few anti-homophobia songs ever written by a Christian band). The next tune, "Four-Fifty-One", sounds pretty similar to "Fahrenheit", and judging from the titles, was probably written at the same time. I don't like it as much as "Fahrenheit", however.
"You Probably Shouldn't Move Here" is a ska-polka fusion that's really annoying and isn't half as funny as it tries to be; thankfully, it's one of the shortest songs on the album (but still runs about 2:30 too long). If "Solidarity" was a Latin ska rocker, then "Hurricanes" is a Latin ska ballad; unfortunately, it meanders a bit too much for my liking and seems to lack emotional resonance (but it's still way better than the last song). "Giants" sounds roughly like a parody of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man"; it's too bad FIF isn't menacing enough to really pull it off (heck, I have to be in the mood for the aforementioned KC song). The ultra-poppy melody in the first part would have worked better in a ballad, and the "heavy" part is predictable and sounds stupid (they bring back the "goofy choir" from the end of Quantity Is Job 1 EP's "The Untimely Death Of Brad").
"All The Hype", the closest FIF ever got to a title track on any of their albums, is a rap parody, and "It's Not Unusual" is, like on PTTYAR, a pretty faithful cover of the original that isn't too interesting. "A New Hope" is next, first introduced on PTTYAR, and it RULES! It's FIF's second best song ever (the best one, in my opinion, is "Every New Day"), and everything I said about the song in my PTTYAR review still applies, only more so. It's great to hear the song with everything in tune and everyone playing ultra-tight. To me, this is one of the few times they were ever very good at sounding "heavy" rather than just plain-old "energetic", as they work around their actual strengths and weaknesses rather than just ignoring them. It's too bad that the "punk praise-and-worship" (!) closer, "World Without End", isn't too remarkable outside of the awesome instrumental bridge (well, the chorus is pretty good, but the verses are annoying!).
Believe it or not, I originally wasn't super-pleased with the album the first time I heard it, since I wanted FIF to sound like they did before (and most of the worst songs on the album are strung together in the middle), but this album has really grown on me. In fact, I have no qualms about giving it the same rating as I gave to Our Newest Album Ever!. I've noticed that most people who like FIF but don't rank them as their favorite band consider this to be one of their favorite FIF albums. If only Five Iron Frenzy had continued in this really interesting, diverse direction in the future rather than making their style even more restricted than before...
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
This is the Official Fan Favorite among Five Iron Frenzy fans, but I don't quite know why. To me, it sounds like FIF trying to "update" their sound by changing from "ska-core" to "rock with horns", since obviously they thought they could fool audiences into thinking they were doing a completely different style from before when all they did was make their guitar tones less varied and fall into an even stricter formula than before.
I would like to dedicate a paragraph to the horrible production on this album. Any time I put it into the stereo, I have to turn it WAY down because it's mastered so much louder than my other CDs. The audio is highly compressed to the point that there are no dynamics whatsoever in the music (of course, the music doesn't have much in the way of dynamics, anyway; it's pretty much non-stop rocking out). This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the mix is so high in treble that it hurts my ears; everything turns out sounding approximately like "GZZZHH". Does anybody know about the "music into noise" essay Wes Lindstrom wrote for this site a long time ago? If not, read it, and you'll understand why this album sounds so incredibly awful. If there are any albums that sound worse than this one, let me know. The next album, The End Is Near, is mixed badly, too, but not as badly as this one. This album is barely listenable at times because of the production. What's even worse is that a lot of Big FIF Fans actually LIKE having their eardrums destroyed by the crummy production and rate this as their "best-produced" album. I usually don't complain about lousy production, but most bad production isn't painful, and the production on this album really *is* painful. I deducted an entire point simply for the production.
Anyway... "Pre-Ex-Girlfriend" is a fast, catchy rocker that immediately assaults the listener with monotonous white noise that still has a pretty good melody. "Far, Far Away" is a really good, somewhat "epic" rocker that suffers from the squashed production. "You Can't Handle This" is a Weezer-imitating rocker that sounds like a continuation of "Far, Far Away" at first; it's a good song on its own, but it suffers after the last one. "Farsighted", the best tune on the album, is another fast melodic rocker that's so good that even the horrible production can't keep it down from being one of their best songs. It's also the most obviously optimistic song on the album, too; maybe that's part of why I like it so much. "Spartan" is an emo-influenced rocker that tries to be a ballad and fails. It's too bad, since it has a pretty good melody and all. "The Day We Killed", a "heavy" rocker, is even worse, however; the lyrics certainly require a heavy tune to fit (they're about racism against Native Americans), but unfortunately FIF decided to sound like a cheap nu-metal parody, so as a result many people thought the song (one of FIF's most serious songs) was a joke at first. Not only that, but Reese Roper's voice just sounds flat-out ugly here.
"Juggernaut" is a much better song, tho; it's a reggae-influenced rocker. "Plan B" is a ska-influenced rocker that is actually the "mellowest" (!) tune on the album. "Blue Mix", a non-descript rocker, describes the mixing process on the album, e. g. "make everything sound as bad as possible", and would have been a better song without the ugly vocal tones. Not only that, but the bridge bugs me; it's like they're saying "Buy our CDs, but not anyone else's!" I understand that it's a bad thing that any bands, especially "Christian" bands, are making their opening bands sound worse than they do (altho the opening bands probably still sound a million times better than this CD), but telling people to boycott every band except Five Iron Frenzy smacks of propaganda. "Vultures" is an enjoyable Devo-esque rocker with the best lyrics on the album. "Car", a heavy rocker in 5/4, is an excellent song with non-obnoxious vocals and lots of fast tricky riffs. Finally, "Eulogy" is a chugging rocker that falls flat for the exact same reason as "Spartan" and has the exact same flaws and everything!
It may be the monotonousness of the sound (most of the songs on here sound exactly the same) or it may be the production, but after listening to this album, I'm usually sick to death of FIF music. I realize now why Big FIF Fans rate it as their best album; the music (which most FIF fans probably can't hear too well if they think this is the best production) is intentionally de-emphasized here in favor of the lyrics, and the main differences between songs occur in the lyrical topics rather than the sound. I mean, FIF was never very diverse in the first place (except on All The Hype That Money Can Buy), but 40 minutes of "GZZZHH" is just plain torturous!
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(reviewed by Alex Harris)
This is a 2-CD set containing a privately released (in 2003) studio album, The End Is Near, and a live album covering the last Five Iron Frenzy show, The End Is Here. However, they are packaged together, so I'm reviewing them together, especially since I initially didn't realize they were supposed to be completely separate albums.
The End Is Near (the studio album) opens with a "one-two punch": the almost dramatic "Cannonball" and the way-too-short "At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys" are both great songs that got my hopes up the first time I heard them. Sadly, these are the two best songs on the album. The boring-but-catchy "So Far, So Bad" sets the tone for the rest of the album, however: it explains that FIF doesn't really care any more about their music, which is very true judging from the lack of care given to the music on this album. "New Year's Eve" is somewhat better, but not notable in its own right except that I think it's supposed to be a "ballad"; by now, any distinction between song types is completely obliterated (until the last song, but I'll get there later). It's just one pop-punk-with-horns tune after another.
"American Kryptonite", an attempt at metal, starts off with a wonderfully catchy melodic section that would have made it the best song on the album if it hadn't been for... Reese Roper screaming and proving he can make himself have the absolute worst voice in all of rock music if he wants. I'll admit I hate screaming, anyway, but I can deal with people with normal voices screaming for short periods of time, but NOT Reese! Combined with the screechy production and the fact they're pounding on one chord for nine minutes at the same time (impressive, since the song's only three minutes long), the sound of Roper screaming and screeching non-threatening phrases in his ultra-nasal voice steers the song into "ultra-cheesy" territory and makes me never want to listen to any part of the song ever. I don't understand how anyone could like this; I can safely say that I have never heard a vocal tone uglier than Reese's tone on this song. Couldn't they have just played a dissonant improvisation a la King Crimson? It would have been more musical. Way to ruin a song, guys. (My middle section would be instrumental and go into double speed, with a chaotic guitar solo on top full of bent notes and feedback. That would have been SO much more powerful, especially when returning to the chorus at the end.)
"It Was Beautiful" is good but not notable, just like "Wizard Needs Food Badly". "Farewell To Arms" isn't notable except that it's the only FIF song in 6/8 time; it's kinda repetitive, tho. "See The Flames Begin To Crawl", a reggae-ish tune, is okay here, but works better on the live album (plus, the lyrics seem to take the attitude that nobody will care about FIF now that they've broken up, which of course is something I'm trying to prevent by writing these reviews). "Anchors Away" is a really boring "heavy" song that is better than "American Kryptonite" for a long list of reasons, including 1) there's no screaming. "Something Like Laughter" would have made a beautiful ballad, but it works surprisingly well as a rocker, and I like it more than the last four songs.
The two closing songs, however, are rip-offs of previous tunes: "That's How The Story Ends" is a far less interesting ripoff of Quantity Is Job 1's "The Untimely Death Of Brad". "On Distant Shores" rips off "Every New Day" and would have belonged better in the middle, since it's the only "ballad" on the album, and I get really tired of 12 songs of just rocking out. It has a great intro section (like "Every New Day") and a great crescendo section (actually, this one is better than the END crescendo), and to underscore the fact they're ripping off a previous song, they cut into a sloppy rendition of the "Every New Day" coda at the end, which seems cheesy; you're supposed to hide your flaws, not highlight them! They should have written a new coda, in my opinion. There's also a bonus track I like, "The Cross Of St. Andrew", which is much better than several of the songs on the album, as well as about 30 minutes of thank-yous after the album (which is only notable for the fact that we find out Scott Kerr's last name is pronounced "cur"). I'm giving the studio album a 5, since it has 7.5-quality material often treated in a 2.5-quality way. :-)
As for the live album... Wow! Five Iron Frenzy's actually turned into a pretty good live band! Not outstanding or anything, but tight and usually in tune! The version of "Old West" from Upbeats And Beatdowns completely PWNS the original! Our Newest's "Handbook For The Sellout" isn't as good here, tho. Three of the four tunes from the studio disc that are featured, "Cannonball", "At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys", and "See The Flames Begin To Crawl" all benefit from the added energy and dynamics, "Cannonball" in particular, and I'd much rather listen to the live versions than the studio versions. ("American Kryptonite" will always suck as long as Mr. Pleasantvoice continues to tear up his vocal cords over stupid-sounding music.) "Vultures" from Electric Boogaloo is also better than before. The song selection is a little bizarre; they seem to have completely forgotten that they don't have to rock out on every song. (They also don't play "Far, Far Away" from Boogaloo, which was released as a single, after all.) There's also a nine-minute medley of older songs near the end (including a cover of "Sometimes When We Touch"; I don't know who originally did it). The version of "A New Hope" here is even better than the original version (other than the "I hope you hate it" announcement at the beginning). Finally, "Every New Day" equals the original, and the little guitar trills at the end of this version may be one of the most powerful musical moments by anyone ever. I'm giving the live album a 7; they have improved considerably since Proof That The Youth Are Revolting.
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