Okay, who remembers Firefall? \u201cStrange Way,\u201d \u201cJust Remember I Love You?\u201d Those were delightful AM pop hits back when my mom was a teenager. Formed by members of Spirit, The Byrds, and the Burrito Brothers in the \u201870s, the band had hits for a while\u2026and then MTV came around and that brand of music was banished to the oldies stations forever. Now, for the first time since 1994, Firefall has reemerged with a brand new studio album from a lineup that includes three original members. Now, I\u2019m not sure if this was something that anyone had been truly asking for, but what the hell, let\u2019s see if it\u2019s worth a listen.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the production sounds like hell, and from the opening track, \u201cWay Back When,\u201d drummer Sandy Ficca sounds like he\u2019s beating a cardboard box. The harmonies are good between the three singers, but the song feels hokey and overly nostalgic. I hear some of these songs and I can\u2019t help but think of the upbeat and overly cheerful Up With People<\/i>\/Lawrence Welk sort of vibe. Frontman Gary Jones would be better suited for a revival of a \u201890s country band as that\u2019s the style he\u2019s more of a fit for.<\/p>\n
\u201cHardest Chain\u201d is one of the most annoyingly dumb songs I\u2019ve heard in a while, but bassist Mark Andes brings things back with a cover of his old band Spirit\u2019s \u201cNature\u2019s Way,\u201d a nice tribute to the memory of Randy California. It\u2019s definitely one of the album\u2019s few highlights. \u201cThere She Is,\u201d a spry little rocker sung by bandleader Jock Bartley, is another notable song. But if anyone is looking for the folk-rock stylings that made the band so interesting back in the \u201870s, that\u2019s pretty much long gone, replaced by a slick pop-rock vibe that fits Gary Jones\u2019 vocal stylings but seems rather unnecessary and uninteresting. Even a 2020 rewrite of their \u201870s hit \u201cMexico\u201d doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
This is a nice attempt, but did it have to be so cheesy and awkward?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":34302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10642],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-46137","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-firefall","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46137"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46137"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}