The snappily-titled Fast Paced & Freakish is an attitude-laden song that harks back to bands like Furslide and their criminally-under-appreciated LP, Adventure. That and a healthy dose of the White Stripes.
Featuring contemporary lyrics like ‘Now it’s too late to hit re-start’, it chugs along at quite a pace, with guitar and bass locked together in a symphony of tension-building, while Erin’s vocal skillfully moves around between deep resonance and aggression – and also a much lighter, thoughtful touch in laid-back verses. It showcases an intelligent dexterity and an attractive natural vibrato.
The song (and the vocal) really opens up in the widescreen choruses, where the energetic sliding riffs on guitar thrust the track’s momentum to the fore; and the guitar voices get a chance to work out. The bridge guitar adds ringing harmonics to the mix, while the vocal becomes low and urgent as the lyric climbs out of the arrangement, all the while proclaiming: ‘Trying to keep up…’
The chorus loops on itself in a satisfying way that sustains the energy during the song’s final charge, which leads into syncopated drum hits on the beat, then a whispered lament of ‘Where did my time go…’ at the conclusion. This final line would have also made an excellent title for the song.
Fast Paced & Freakish rattles along and has a real confidence and swagger in its delivery, and it really delivers. In Erin’s vocal we get a convincing, accomplished, tuneful and connected performance that lies at the heart of the song, also utilising multiple layered vocals in the chorus to hammer the points home.
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