Fangs!

Falling Up | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 24, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bec Recordings / Emd
• ASIN: B001R7IH4G
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,390 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weirdly wonderful!!, March 26, 2009

By 

Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fangs! (Audio CD)

Falling Up are a Christian Alternative rock quartet and their fourth studio album "Fangs!" is like nothing else on the Christian music scene, a linchpin on the scene. Sounding in part like stuff by REM, Radiohead, or even Prog Rock duo The Mars Volta, theirs is a very experimental, atmospheric sound.

The album apparently revolves about a concept, it is an account and summary of chapters 1-5 from the book "Fangs!" adapted from the original screenplay "Neptuenn's Cavern" by lead vocalist Jessy Ribordy. Here is an excerpt of the story: In a land not unlike our own, a city witnessed a strange occurrence- the cloth that the children slept in was weaved in poison golden thread. If the thread had touched the children's skin for much longer, they would be sure to fall into a deep sleep and never wake up. The city spared no time as they hoped to rid of the threads as soon as possible. In their plans, they tied up the threads in a large shoot and attached one thousand arrows on strings to the end of the shoot. Then, with a thousand of their strongest archers, they shot the poison threads up, up, up towards the nearest planet Neptuenn.

A thousand years later...

Screams in the night- The city wakes to find their poor innocent children stuck deep with sharp golden arrows. All of the children lay silently with great arrows sticking out of their bodies. The people assume there must have been poison on the tips of the arrows and in the cities most desperate attempt to find those responsible for this atrocity, they sent out their most ambitious traveler and drifter to search the land. He is an adventurer, he is the hero. But as his attempts to find any answers while traveling the land had failed, he received word from the city that he must board a space craft at the space station Forum A, located on Eoption Island to blast off to the nearest planet Neptuenn. As the first from his planet to journey to this mysterious Neptuenn, he departs in a zealous quest to search for the answer to this great riddle and find help for the sleeping children.

I know, all that passed way over my head too, so I'll head into the music.

Every track has a haunting, ambient, highly melodic feel, from the opening trio of rockers, the frenetic "A colour Eoptian" (with nice chanted chorus), the bubbly "Lotus and the languorous", and the heavier, fuzzy "Streams Of Woe At Acheron".

The ballad "magician reversed" finds Ribordy's tenor voice soaring effortlessly above an ambient backdrop with sixties-sounding harmonies and a clattery percussion-filled coda. Also dense and ambient is "Golden arrows". "The king's garden" is a more stripped acoustic ballad, with layered harmonies, sounding like something by the Fleet Foxes. "Panic and geo-primaries" is a jangly, echoing ballad with a stunning keyboard/percussion pattern.

This is an album of standouts, really from the ballad "The moonn and sixpence", the Punked up "Goddess of the dayspring, am I" (with a nice chiming guitar break and tempo shifts), the dreamy guitar ballad "The sidewinder flux", the eerie sounding ballad "The chilling Alpine adventure", and the spare tender lullaby-like "Swimming towards propellers" with unsettling sounding strings and swirls. Every instrument, lyric and vocal nuance revolves around this world of fiction and fantasy.

A fantastic and magical musical adventure!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Falling Up [Fangs], March 25, 2009

By 

Kevin Davis "NewReleaseTuesday" (Perkasie, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Fangs! (Audio CD)

Falling Up returns with their 4th full length album, "Fangs", a mystical concept record telling a story of hope. Years in the works, Falling Up has brought to life a lush musical journey that began as story penned by lead singer Jessy Ribordy. Heros & villains, good and evil, trials and tribulation. "The story of our hero begins as he crash lands into a great sea on this mystic planet called Neptuenn. We follow along on his quest as he embarks to discover the history of the planet, and just like anytime one travels to a distant land, he is shocked to notice just how strange the place that he comes from really is." This album, along with the introduction, is an account and summary of chapters 1-5 from the book "Fangs!" adapted from the original screenplay "Neptuenn's Cavern" by Jessy Ribordy.

This is unlike any Christian release I've ever heard and it is a truly brilliant musical journey. I've enjoyed previous hit songs by Falling Up including "Flights", "Contact", "Exit Calypsan" and "Hotel Aquarium". If you liked those songs, you won't be disappointed with the stand-out songs on "Fangs" which for me are the first 3 songs "The Colour Eoptian", "Lotus And The Langourous" and "Streams Of Woe At Acheron". Those 3 songs set the stage for the concept of the album, which is unique and fictional. The music and Jessy's singing voice blend perfectly with the synth-rock sound of Falling Up, musically more like the "Exit Lights" remix album. I've already listened to the song "Lotus And The Langourous" over a dozen times, and it is my favorite new rock song of the year. There is nothing offensive in the song lyrics although they are obscure. The album reminds me of last year's stand-out album "With Arrows, With Poise" by The Myriad, including more arrow references in "Golden Arrows" and "The Kings Garden", part of a mellow middle section of the album which continues until the rock kicks into high gear with the guitar intro on "The Moon And Sixpence". The album closes with 4 more story songs, including more references to the "golden arrows" in "Goddess of the Dayspring, Am I", and "Swimming Toward Propellers".

If you like praise and worship or lyrics that you can immediately identify with, this album is not for you. If you like alternative rock like The Myriad, Anberlin and Radiohead, then this concept album is for you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got Bite?, December 21, 2009

By 

Glenn O. Kirms (Anywhere, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fangs! (Audio CD)

Being relatively new to Falling Up and pretty much stumbling upon this album I find it very interesting and very good. Now, finding out my son listens to them, but really only likes their first release 'Crashings' I can see where I would definitely like 'Fangs' where my son wouldn't. This is an excellent album musically. If you want the same album from any group time after time, then what's the point? One of the things I look for in a group is if they try to change it up from album to album. Falling Up seems to want to do just that. Don't get caught up in the fact that it's based off a screenplay dealing with mythology. Who can't say that they didn't study Greek mythology in school? And while one reviewer claims that "I think it is also important to realize Falling Up doesn't seem to worship God or even mention his word throughout the album, a huge disappointment from a Christian rock band!". My question to that reviewer is "Can't an album just have clean lyrics and great music that Christians can listen to"? Hey - there's a ton of ways to worship God last time I looked. So, because they don't mention God this time around you're ready to throw them and their faith under the bus. What a shame that there's such a narrow point of view on what Christian music should be like. I listen to a lot of bands, mostly secular, and that's one of the biggest drawbacks with the Christian music genre - in a box with no way out. The best music out there is from bands who think out of the box and evolve their sound. I love progressive music so this is probably why I love this album. It reminds me of Ashes Divide, Lunatic Soul, The Pineapple Thief, and Fair to Midland in their approach, but also many others in their willingness to take a chance. Call it dreamy or melancholy, but this album is just a great listen from start to finish. And not having listened to their other albums I feel I have an unbiased opinion on this since I'm not comparing it to their other albums. But, as another reviewer stated, preview it before you buy because if you're expecting another 'Crashings' you will be disappointed.