This review was commissioned. However, it bears no weight on the score or decision. All reviews are written from an unbiased standpoint.
Ah, if it isn’t my old rival and arch nemesis The Fair Attempts. Well, not really, in fact I’m quite friendly with the man behind the project named Friendly Timo. Don’t let the spikey gas mask fool you; the man is quite the softy. Anyway, The Fair Attempts are back with a double EP (a bit confused as to why it wasn’t a full album but, hey, it’s artistic I suppose) titled “Lunisolar Reckoning”. This is split into two parts each with five songs.
Every time I review The Fair Attempts I usually come to the same conclusions, one of those being that his vocals aren’t that great. So I’m going to do a speedrun of that complaint as it still remains true. I don’t think Friendly Timo should sing. At all. I think the only moments his vocals are okay at best are moments on songs such as ‘Switched the Truth to Dare’ where Timo does more of a spoken word thing than singing. So, basically when he’s talking in a bit of a cinematic moment. But even then these moments are so sparse that it’s hardly a compliment. The major issue I find with Friendly Timo’s vocals is that they simply sound tone-deaf half the time and don’t work. Rant over, let’s move onto the music.
So, the first part of this double EP starts with ‘Coming Back For More’ and features guest vocalist ‘Vixen Sly’. And, in comparison to what Timo does, her voice works pretty well. Around the one-minute and fifty-second mark she comes in with a vocal solo that would sound more appropriate in a cabaret bar than an industrial rock track, but here we are. I am not unappreciative of this gesture. The song itself is much more cinematic from what we’ve seen in the past on The Fair Attempts previous outputs. Industrial rock for sure still, but definitely putting out feelers and having a harder rock edge than anything synthpop related.
‘Worldwide Bitter End’ continues that similar trend, not necessarily sounding like an original song but an extension of the first with a bit of a focus on getting people to move on the dancefloor. Classic Fair Attempts stuff right here. ‘Black Place Under the Sun’ switches between straight, fuzzy rock (more on that later) and acoustic based segments. The acoustic based segments sound much better, sounding properly mixed and mastered and much more clean than anything else on the album, which is a bit embarrassing I think.
‘What a Hell I Have Become’ has similar structure to the previous track, jumping between bouts of heavier rock and quieter sections mainly focusing on acoustic instrumentals. ‘Fly Away (Like A Butterfly)’ is a bit more emotional and instrumental. And it makes me wonder about the future of The Fair Attempts; it seems that this album is moving away from his roots into a new era. Which, hey, that’s not a bad thing. In fact these raw, emotional segments are much better than a lot of other things that have come out of The Fair Attempts in the past.
This now moves into the second part of the EP. And this starts with ‘Switched the Truth to Dare’. I’m confused on how to feel about this song; one part of it is trying to be a catchy, pop-influenced track while the other is trying to be industrial rock, but its caught in the middle and doesn’t know which way to sway.
‘This World Wants You Dead’ shows some decent guitar execution and has a steady rock flow. Not exactly easy listening, not exactly dance material, but soothing nonetheless with a bit of bounce. Like pepper. The next song, ‘The Children of City 9’, was released as a single prior to this double EP and I already put my thoughts HERE.
‘Boots on the Ground’ could best be described as an electro-acoustic track and is by far the best track I’ve heard out of them all. It’s soothing, has a fun little slap to it as far as the acoustic guitar goes, and I could see this being used to enjoy a sunset. The final song on the album ‘Every Day is a Perfect Day’ utilizes ambient synths to get the job done. It’s okay, nothing crazy, and I’ve certainly heard better from other ambient acts, but it’s a stylistic choice and I see the reason why The Fair Attempts chose to go down this route.
“Lunisolar Reckoning” contains both some of the worst music I’ve heard from The Fair Attempts and some of the best. What’s wrong with the first part of the EP is that the fuzzy rock sound just simply doesn’t sound well-produced and comes off amateur. It’s sloppy, ugly, and fuzzy. When the acoustic moments come about in those songs you can hear the stark difference between the electronic misery and the acoustic glory. The second part does a better job getting away from that mess and focuses moreso on what works than what doesn’t. But this is also without consideration for the vocals, which are just plain bad throughout the entirety of the album.
That being said I’m mixed, polarized, but left feeling with a bit of negative thoughts as I don’t think I’d recommend this to anyone. Usually when I’m mixed I’d slap a release like this with a flat five, but seeing how I have a bad taste in my mouth I’m going to give it a 4.5 cause I really, really don’t want to revisit this.
