Reviews

My main issue with folk-punk has always been that the bands were never really balanced. Either the musicianship was there and the lyrical content was lacking, or the lyrical content was there and the musicianship was lacking. It seems silly to drag either of these issues up when talking about the merits of a punk band (a punk band in the traditional sense), but in the case of folk-punk, it's made the difference to me. We can't all be Crass.

Where Our Failures Are, the new album from Brooklyn, New York's The New Dress, avoids this fundamental flaw. Lyrically, they have emerged as one of the best folk punk bands in recent memory. They don't write the socially consciousness songs of bands like This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. Instead, they write prettier, more emotional pop songs that recall Defiance, Ohio's Share What Ya' Got. The major difference being Laura Fidler can actually sing. This girl has one of the prettiest voices I've heard in awhile. She provides a nice contrast to her counterpart, Bill Manning, whose voice is a bit rougher, but is still a talented addition to the album. The two voices work together beautifully to deliver some very sweet and moving lyrics where most bands in this vein would be singing something more akin to the activist folk songs of yesterday. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but it's just refreshing to hear something like, "I know the way to my heart is through broken ribs / And even if this falls apart, I will know this," rather than "We got the body count from a conflict, not a war / We got the body count every afternoon at four," for a change.

On the side of musicianship, the album flourishes because unlike a lot of folk-punk bands, The New Dress can actually play their instruments. While not being the most musically adept players may work for someone like Ghost Mice, it's nice to see a band that is both technically competent and has something worthwhile to say. I will say that the album probably could have stood to have someone doing a little work on the percussion end of things, but this is a minor complaint and one that I imagine will be remedied in their live show.

The New Dress may not be doing anything revolutionary on this record, but they are taking a tried and true formula and giving us another excellent album to play alongside Front Seat Solidarity and The Great Depression. A great album all around.