Fools Parade

I was reading recently that NASA scientists have turned their attention from the mysteries of the cosmos to a more important area of research: what happens when you get a spider completely off its tits? 

According to the New Scientist magazine the NASA experiments have shown that common house spiders spin their webs in different ways according to the drug they have been given.  Apparently spiders on marijuana made a reasonable stab at spinning webs but appeared to lose concentration about half-way through. Which is exactly what happened when I was listening to the four short tunes on the new Fools Parade 'Gland Arcade' EP.

In other the experiments with spiders that were given speed, the arachnids spun their webs "with great gusto, but apparently without much planning, leaving large holes." Which is the perfect description for these songs: plenty of gusto but large holes all over the place.  It would be too easy to draw comparisons with the Arctic Monkeys (because there are some clever lyrics and the band come from north of Watford) and Enter Shikari (because they combine punky thrash with electro synths). But these comparisons do Fools Parade a disservice as these 17-year-olds really want your attention.

It feels like Fools Parade want to do something different. But like a dog with two dicks they lack focus and throw everything into the kitchen sink. Cymbals are way too high in the mix whilst everything else sounds foggy. The sawing guitar sounds potentially great but the synths distract and diffuse their effect. The snarling vocals appear to have something to say but I just don’t know what it is.

Fools Parade have made a good effort with the 'Gland Arcade' EP but need to take a lesson from the NASA experiments. Spiders given too much caffeine are incapable of spinning anything better than a few threads strung together at random. Take a deep breath, boys, go straight edge for a bit. Less is always more.

#Fools Parade #Indie-Rock #Stubble #Chris Washington-Sare