Tu Fawning are a bit like what would happen if Bob Dylan infiltrated Abba.
Except they’re from Oregon, not Sweden, and I’m not entirely sure if any of them are involved with extra-curricular activities with other bandmembers.
Regardless of the quartet’s marital status, their debut album has definitely made an impression. They’ve quickly distanced their music from the hoards of indie plinky-plonky acoustic albums.
‘Hearts on Hold’ opens with ‘I Know You Now’ – a smasher of a track with more than a hint of the old-time vaudeville. This sounds like Jessica Rabbit circa 1920, a theme that is revisited in a number of other tracks. Its haunting, repetitive chorus ‘I know you now and I won’t forget you’ is a stalker’s ideal song, but you wouldn’t mind being pursued by a band who can make music as intoxicating as this.
Tu Fawning are keen on percussion. A variety of rhythmic drumming pops up throughout the record, from the soldier-like drilling to something that wouldn’t sound out of place in a tribe in Africa warming up for their rain dance. Every instrument can be clearly heard and appreciated
Corrina Repp, a solo artist in her own right, takes the lion’s share of the vocals. Her voice is strong, but does not dominate the tracks. Instead she is the perfect accomplice to whichever of the organ, piano, guitar or infinite drum-like instrument is at hand. Repp is almost reminiscent of Florence Welch – strong, confident and would sound spectacular in an intimate gig.
Co-founder Joe Haege comes through most strongly on ‘Lonely Nights’, a wailing conversation between a woman and her lover. It is a most bizarre track arising from the shriek of panpipes. Yes, panpipes. That music (in the loosest sense of the word) most commonly found in the salons of homeopathic medicine practitioners and lifts. But Tu Fawning are not afraid to take something unusual, twist it and make it fit perfectly into a song. Similarly, ‘Hand Grenade’ begins with a church organ. But this is no ordinary church organist. On this track he’s clearly been at the crack.
From there, the band bursts into ‘Mouths of Young’, which departs from their organic sound into something that may have been creating using a stock FX CD. A bomb blast, followed by something I can only describe as alien meets 1980s David Bowie, it fades into Repp’s best impression of a jazz singer.
Each track on ‘Hearts on Hold’ fades most beautifully leaving the listener with the hint of an interesting song lingering in the ear. It certainly made me want to listen again and again just to see what other instruments I could make out, what other meaning I could pull from the poetic lyrics. Even the song that started off as a potential weak link, ‘Sad Story’, turned it all around with a thumper of a muscial interlude.
If you like your indie on the side of an acoustic main course, Tu Fawning’s first offering should be at the top of your menu.
Top tracks: ‘I Know You Now’, ‘Lonely Nights’.
Released January 10 on City Slang
Echo Rating (((???•)))
Posted by Sara
