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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Fred Thomas
Sink Like a Symphony
Corleone Records
So you’re sitting in your basement at 4am in Michigan with a multi-track recorder, some second-hand instruments, and a lot of time on your hands. Morning arrives. You call up a few neighbors and invite them over for a sing-a-long. You could be Fred Thomas. It’s just that easy. Sink Like A Symphony, Thomas’ flagship solo album is a small canoe on a raging river; you’re waiting for it to capsize but you hope to God that it doesn’t. Lyrically, the album fails to inspire (“Go make a ladder of your spine. Make every rung be stepped and climbed”) while vocally it make you go immediately to the medicine cabinet looking for those skuzzy earplugs you snagged from the “please take one” table at the ‘97 Vans Warped Tour. The pitch of “I Fell In Love With The World” and the harmonization of “I Built A House” are so painful, you almost wonder if this is bizarre for the sake of bizarre, or if this guy is completely tone deaf. The vocals, for the most part, are tragic and wobbly, yet strangely there is potential. Each track introduces a new piece of equipment, which should evince Thomas’ creativity by creating an element of surprise. And while it is surprising, it tends to distract rather than enhance. From the manic, gypsy bonfire drumming that concludes “The Curse Is Broken! On To New Curses!” to the oddly placed trumpet solo in “Fire,” the progressions are stop-and-go traffic. This album wants to break through and innovate the indie experience; fair enough. But while the recipe is there, sadly the ingredients are mixed too haphazardly, making it sound like open mike night on a Tuesday in a town you’ve never heard of.
--Katie Cleland
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