Fox Hunting - Masquerade

Fox Hunting are a Swedish electropop duo. I recently had the pleasure of reviewing the bands maxi-single 'Hurting' which was taken from this their debut album 'Masquerade'. A ten track album of 36.5 minutes which I go into with hope at least following the recent single review.

Our first track "Popcode I" is a good scene setter as an entrance and piece of pure electropop. "Fighting For Them" has a great drum and synth start and then allows to us hear Peter's vocals for the first time, but although the music is good it's overpowering to an extent and the vocals then seem a little lost in places. Pure electropop is the only fitting description for the track once again, which also has a robotic quality.

"Made Of Gold (Technicolor)" has a great beat and beautiful melody and the vocals are much clearer and more suited to the music, seeming to be more in sync with each other. We have our first piece of dance music in "Nineteen Eighty-Four", an excellent track although verging on dance-pop in sound. A nice level sound, although "Hurting" is a good overall track the album is allowing me to take account of Niklas's great overall contribution to all tracks.

Next up is "Hurting", just an excellent piece of synthpop/electropop. It has a beautiful melody and a Pet Shop Boys sound, and shows Peter's vocals in their true glory. Synthpop has had a recent revival but Fox Hunting for me are very different from the La Roux's etc., of this world.

I am not sure what the relevance of "Popcode II" is, perhaps it denotes a change but it's a nice short piece of music and we will soon find out. "Meet the Fox" is quite different, has a some great sounds, and great synth lines.But, after "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Hurting", however good the music is the lack of melody hurts! I was going going to say at one point I don't like it but the fact is its' just more complicated and needs more attention.

"Start The Simulation" still has the same good and consistent contributions from both members of the band, but the vocals are allowed to shine a little more. Sounds very Depeche Mode influenced. "This Is What You Have To Do" is the first track I can say I don't care for and seems very mediocre particularly the vocals. I refer back to the vocals problem in "Fighting For Them", that the vocals are lost in places.

We finish with "We Made Berlin Burn", which has hints of Depeche Mode from the start. Lead by a good drum beat and the vocals are back to their best, but despite a good melody in places still does not have the sound of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and "Hurting".

Conclusion:
"Hurting" was the obvious single choice, but the album in terms of both production and the songs is of good quality almost throughout. You can tell the influences immediately but the duo although the stereotype synthpop duo to look at are certainly no clones, they have very much their own style. If anything the album as a whole has an early Depeche Mode quality. As "Hurting" was a pleasure, almost to the same extent is 'Masquerade' and I recommend it. Jun 29 2012