Album Review: The Fades - "Night Terrors"
Hailing from South London, the Fades are gaining a reputation of one of the premier garage rock bands in the capital these days and, as with a few albums we've reviewed in these webpages of late, Night Terrors was written during the lockdown as it was a recurring feature of life for the band's frontman Dave during the lockdown.
As befits its title and subject matter, Night Terrors is an off-kilter effort which might take a few listens to get into but rewards those who persevere with it. Certainly, the discordant vocals and guitars often give the impression of the whole operation being on the verge of collapse on the likes of The Pessimist and Known It All Along while Lost My Job goes into XTC/Nightingales style post-punk territory. However, the likes of People In General show that they can rein the weirdness in and build up an intriguing multi-part epic which starts off as tuneful new wave before drifting into a nightmarish state-of-the-nation monologue courtesy of none other than Fruitbat from Carter USM. Meanwhile, the six minute title track builds up into a drawn-out horn-infused section which almost veers into Dexy's style northern soul stomp by way of Spiritualized and Television, which runs close to ten minutes, is every bit as unhinged as you'd expect.
Easy listening it very much ain't then but the Fades undeniably have a knack of at least keeping things interesting to ensure that you'll at least listen to Night Terrors all the way through. In short then, don't go into this one expecting instant gratification but for those willing to go back and work on it, there's plenty to enjoy here.
NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)
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