The Fooligans
Love Songs For The Apocalypse
3 Stars
The Fooligans are the little engine that could of the Triangle. The band isn’t polished and it doesn’t have the best sounding material, but brute talent and a raw rock ‘n’ roll sound keep the band trucking up the mountain. Love Songs For the Apocalypse can attest to The Fooligans’ determination.
The album would be considered demo quality for most bands, but the group is able use its talent, lyricism and composition to help compensate for this blight. Full of references to North Carolina, The Fooligans’ debut album provides a warm correlation between traveling and the beauty of the
landscape in our own back yard. The vocals stay within safe limits for the better part of the album, but
when the band puts its gut into belting out emotion, the product is crackly and bland. The whammy bar riffs on “Don’t Go To Sleep” are one of the more aberrant moments on the record, but an emphatic cowbell helps ease this strange deviation.
“That Mountain” is one of the more melodious and folk tinged songs with swinging guitars that eventually lead to Skynyrd-like breakdowns and multiple changes in pace, making for a six minute ride that changes elevation like a mountain range.
The band doesn’t rely on its melodious southern infused rock though — it switches gears to a lonesome-cowboy jukebox tune on “Problem Solver” and pulls it off with ease. The seventh and final song of the album is an eleven-minute rigmarole that starts off with lively action but wallows into an even lower-quality acoustic solo that just doesn’t work.
Though Love Songs for the Apocalypse shows apparent weaknesses initially, the raw sound of The Fooligans is dangerously enjoyable and ultimately easy to befriend.
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
