THE FIRE - review added 11th September 2009
Album Review: Abracadabra (2009)
For fans of: Modern Rock... and Frank and Jimmy
Italian group The Fire seems to be both massive and impossibly small at the same time.
Their MySpace page is overflowing with gig dates, and their friend stats are into 5 figures. They show 2 other releases before this one: This year's Electro Cabaret EP and 2006's Loverdrive. It also tells you that the line-up is Olly (vocals, guitar), Lou Castagnaro (guitar), Pelo (bass), Alecs (drums) and Filippo Dallinferno (vocals, guitar)...but that seems to be about it.
There's very little other information out there about them. Try searching for 'The Fire' and, unsurprisingly, you get lots of information about stuff getting burned. Their website isn't much help either; it's 'under construction'.
So...all we really know about them is what they sound like, which is bloody good. They are like a mix of Muse and Manic Street Preachers done in an ultra contemporary style. None of it is spectacularly original but there's no denying the talent on show.
The vocals are excellent. The musicianship that backs them up is from the top drawer too. The title track is a pumping effort with more adrenaline than a tightrope walker with itchy toes. 'Wasted' is acoustically soft and punk-tough in tandem. Very clever. The cover of 'New York New York' is of course genius. How could it be anything but? It starts as a sleazy take on the standard track before surreptitiously turning into an utterly filthy strip-club version. Brilliant.
And so it goes on. Apart from the magnificent 'Sweet Enemy' and, at a push, 'Yvonne', few of the songs are absolutely outstanding, but they all have a massive appeal and conspire to make an album bigger than the sum of its parts. It'd be good to know a bit more about The Fire, but for the moment Abracadabra will do just fine.
Check out... The cover of Jimmy Somerville's 'Small Town Boy'. Odd choice but it works.
Track List:
01. Abracadabra
02. Wasted
03. New York New York
04. Bohemian Burlesque
05. Sweet Enemy
06. Scars
07. Chevalier
08. Yvonne
09. Lady Motorcycle
10. My Fenestration
11. Walk
12. Emily
13. Small Town Boy
Artist's website(s): The Fire , MySpace
