First, the music: Drop The Fear is rock. It is also trip-hop,
\nand it sounds “shoegazer” in places. If you take some of
\nRadiohead’s
\nKid A<\/i>, mix it with Massive Attack’s
\nMezzanine<\/i>, add to it some
\nDisintegration<\/i> by The Cure and
\nSongs Of Faith And Devotion<\/i> by Depeche Mode, and finally
\nsprinkle it with a bit of
\nJar Of Flies<\/i> by Alice In Chains, with some Cocteau Twins of
\nany form thrown in, you still won’t get the recipe for Drop The
\nFear’s sound; you just get an idea of how it could be. This is
\nbecause, the band has a feel of its own, and it is very difficult
\nto classify their music.<\/p>\n
The album is poignant. It is not perpetually depressing, but it
\nis gloomy. It is one of the finest “gloom” records ever made; it is
\ninspiring. Each of the 12 numbers of this self-titled release has
\nits own shade of somberness — no two songs have identically same
\ntempers, even though the general aura of the album is pallid.<\/p>\n
Drop The Fear is a threesome, and all the three of them do
\nvocals, drums, and keys — in addition to guitars and basses that
\nalso feature prominently in the band’s sound. So the album has
\nomnipresent keyboard-noise, and a hodgepodge of drumbeats. As a
\nmatter of fact, the song “Gordon” is a fully drum-instrumental,
\nwith some “atmospheric” synth added.<\/p>\n
The only female-member of Drop The Fear, Sarah, sings most of
\nthe songs on the album. She has a laidback style of singing, much
\nlike that of Dido and Moloko’s Roisin Murphy. But she is a much
\nbetter vocalist than either of them. Sarah’s vocals make all the
\nruefulness of the album seem comforting and hopeful.<\/p>\n
The main male accompaniment to Sarah’s vocals, Ryan, has
\ndistressingly haunting vocals. On the heavily guitar-driven
\n“Muranau,” he has a rasping tone, very similar to the grunge-legend
\nLayne Staley. On the trippy “Long Way From Home” he sounds as
\nsensual and as spooky as Horace Andy. Ryan is as gifted of a singer
\nas Sarah is, but he won’t help all the downcast mood of the record
\nget any brighter.<\/p>\n
There is a rather strange and surprising fact about the outfit:
\nit does not have a record label yet, and the album is being sold
\nindependently through a website based out of Denver, which is also
\nwhere the band hails from. The sound, complexity, and the
\nexceptional musical maturity of the album make it impossible to
\nbelieve that this band doesn’t have a record company.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the production of the album is flawless and almost
\nperfect, for its musical intricacy — and this is a self-produced
\nwork. This record could fit as the work of the members of a
\nwell-established band, on one of their creative trips to produce
\nsomething spectacularly imaginative — and it turns out to be the
\nzenith of their career, but for an indie band that is still
\nstruggling to clinch a record deal, this album is too good to be
\ntrue: This is one of the greatest debut LPs ever made. Also, even
\nfor a debut LP, this record is simply too classy.<\/p>\n
\nDrop The Fear<\/i> represents the fact that not all music that
\nhits the charts is good. Or, not all music that doesn’t hit the
\ncharts is bad. It exemplifies the bitter irony of true talent, not
\ngetting credit for what it is — this band should be one of the
\nhottest new acts of the year. This band is gifted, and it will be a
\ngreat loss to music, if this group’s genius fails to get recognized
\nsooner or later.<\/p>\n