Torschlusspanik!

The Fernweh are a bouncy little magpie of a band, happily picking and plucking at strands of musical threads in a quest to build a nest of sound thats quite tidy and of great value. Their self-titled debut album displayed a bent toward the hauntological, splicing together psychedelia and folk in a way the denizens of the kind of town where the Wicker Man took place would surely feel a kinship with. With their second record, Torschlusspanik!, the band mostly look elsewhere for inspiration, weaving in strands of glittering glam rock, shiny 80s-inspired pop, and 70s-style soft rock while adding new instruments along the lines of barroom piano, honking saxes, and spotless synthesizers. Its not exactly a left turn into an unknown destination, but at times its hard to square the concept that the same band made both albums. That being said, there is some sonic overlap in the jangling folk rock ramble of "Happy Is Larry" and the reverb-heavy psych pop gem "Know You Know." These songs could have easily found a home on their first album, maybe even been highlights. Mostly though, the album is a batch of songs that fly off in all sorts of directions. Theres some Harry Nilsson-style songcraft (the Beach Boys-quoting "Everybody Says"), sunny, late-Paul Weller mod pop ("Pas Devant Les Enfants"), rollicking country-rock that sounds a little Gorkys-esque in the verses and very Super Furry Animals in the blown-out choruses ("I Want to See Your Name in Lights"), and they channel Roxy Music at their most giddily playful on "The Pike." These songs show a band exploring new territory with gleeful abandon, chucking out the rule book and doing whatever their hearts please, and its a joy to listen to. Only when they stick a little too closely to the indie rock standards does the album sag -- just a little, in fact almost imperceptibly. It might be a little unfair to expect every song to be a breathless jumble of influences delivered with all the glee of a kid with a giant lollipop, especially when the few ballads, like the Mellotron-powered, saxophone-skewered "Lets Go Out (Magic Swing)," are very pretty and thoughtful. So, take that criticism with a grain of salt and move on. The Fernweh are likely moving too fast to even notice, and their next record may be all dub reggae and happy hardcore; it will probably be, judging from how they spin their influences into gold here, something very much worth investigating. ~ Tim Sendra