Underground Sound - Future of the Left

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
February 27, 2008

As Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battle to see who will represents the current state of the left, a few musicians from Wales prepare to define what is yet to come for liberals—the Future of the Left, if you will. Composed of members from the former bands Mclusky and Jarcrew, the band offers some solutions to world’s problems in its debut album, Curses!

Described by SPIN as an “aggro rock outfit,” FOTL is a three-piece from Cardiff that is 75 percent loud and angry at the world, 15 percent in love with Elvis Costello and 10 percent in love with themselves—and it’s all OK, because Curses! is an even, enjoyable album with few letdowns and numerous catchy hooks.

The band produced the album themselves with the aid of Richard Jackson and effectively achieved the quaint simplicity and avoided a noticeable void that sometimes hurts smaller groups. Although certain aspects are layered (piano is included), the album feels as if they just hit the tape recorder and went with it.

Opening with the few boisterous tunes “The Lord Hates a Coward” and “Plague of Onces” Curses! combines satirical lyrics (“Violence, it solves everything”) with ripping bass lines and chaotic – yet harnessed – guitar licks.

Then the angry tracks turns into a goofier, keyboard-heavy song which, at first look, appears to accost former Florida Senator and pageboy fan-boy Mark Foley. On further review—and after scanning the liner notes—Foley turns out to be the owner of the studio where they recorded and the goofy song is awesome.

Part The Munsters, part Costello, “Manchasm” is the album’s standout track and should have been the featured single. “Manchasm” serves as a great transition as the band enters into a more psychedelic, folky style.

Almost as if on cue, “Suddenly It’s a Folk Song” pops up and acts as the title suggests—jarring the listener into the realization that some serious preaching is occurring. Better on an album in a lyrically clever song than on stage in an awkward, uneducated rant, I always say. Some good lines from this number include, “Everybody needs to eat/Even dogs and customs men” and “Hope is a hat-stand and hats are essential for travel.” This is an enjoyable tune that gets your noodle going, too.

Unfortunately, Curses! gets a little weird and contrived in the lull of the album. Chant song “Kept By Bees” displays some hardcore roots, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. “Small Bones Small Bodies” is OK, but out of place. Honestly, it feels like a bad Presidents of the United States of America song got lost.

Luckily, FOTL found its direction and gets back on track with the punny “Wrigley Scott.” This tune is a silly, yet enjoyable ballad about a pair of Lord of the Rings nerds awkwardly getting it on. Well, I think so, but songwriter Falkous admits that he doesn’t think it’s about anything. Either way, I don’t think it ends well for them, but does, however, blend smoothly into the numbers-heavy “Real Men Hunt in Packs.” Neat-o use of a piano at the end of this bitch-out to an ex-girlfriend track. It makes you wonder how autobiographical these two songs are for Falkous; dude may need some help.

By the time the aforementioned single “adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood” comes around, you forget that this band wants to be angry, so it seems out of place. Nestled between the Brian Wilsonian “Team:Seed” and soft exit-track “The Contrarian,” the song is like a call to arms during peace time: unwarranted, unnecessary and unwelcome. Maybe someday I’ll learn to appreciate it as a song by itself, but in my world of album rock, I don’t like it.

That being said, Curses! plays well several listens in and makes me hope that there is a future for The Future of the Left. So as Super Tuesday has come and passed, Falkous’ looks as if he knows the role he is to play: “I give you the future of what you demanded.”

scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu