Falling Up- Fangs!

Falling Up never ceases to stop moving forward. Each record has been its own style, almost entirely different from the last. Their diversity may upset some fans of their older sound displayed in Crashings. But inevitably, half a decade later, Falling Up presents us with their next effort, Fangs!.

Fangs! tells a unique story of a planet much like ours where it is discovered that the children slept in blankets weaved from poisonous golden thread. The thread was shot into space, to the nearest planet, Neptuenn, by their strongest archers. A thousand years later, the arrows return, plunging into the children, who have fallen into a deep sleep. A traveler is sent to Neptuenn to investigate what has happened. Fangs! describes his journey, what happens there, and what he observes.

Musically, the album is much like Captiva, still holding some rock quality, but with a lot of electric sound effects and synths thrown in. Songs such as "Lotus and the Langourous", and "The Moonn and the Sixpence" may please fans of the old Dawn Escapes sound, but anyone interested in solely that style will be disappointed. Other songs such as "The King's Garden" show a much softer side of Falling Up that is, sadly, barely ever heard. The track is the album's most beautiful and relaxed. Fans of the remix album will like most of the songs as many of them sound kind of space-y and electric. So there's pretty much something for everyone, musically, in this album. (As a side note, some of the songs have irratatingly long closings. Some sound really cool, but just seem a bit overdone.)

Lyrically, the album is more like Dawn Escapes, the lyrics more cryptic than, say, "Hotel Aquarium." Under every song in the CD booklet is a small note, telling where the character is going or what he's thinking. Some songs have a small notation such as "Acheron- in Greek Mythology, one of the rivers of Hades," which may help some when trying to understand the story Ribordy is trying to portray. Much of it is unclear, and sadly, does not seem to hold any spiritual meaning at all. Fans familiar with Captiva are sure to notice that the line in the song "Panic and Geo-Primaries", "Breathing in the dark, they're finding where you are" is recycled from "Arch to Achtilles" off of Captiva--even accompanied by the same tune as the older song. Whatever the significance, it was interesting that they used it again.

So, in the end, Fangs! may confuse most lyrically, but is enjoyable to listen to. If you're looking for an album with any spiritual meaning, you probably won't find Fangs! to your liking. If you're looking for some good, entertaining music, this will be good for you. In the end there's really only one word to sum up this album: unique. Very well done, but so different--very refreshing. It may require a few listens to get used to the style, but one listen is enough to know that this band is good--the future holds a lot for them.