Customer Reviews

Forfeit/Fortune

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What is going on that Eric Bachman/Crooked Fingers is not at the top of the charts? After Archers of Loaf, Eric spread his wings and flew with Crooked Fingers (along with some solo albums). Mr. Bachman has his style with spare sad songs of mostly self-destructive people. Then with Crooked Fingers notched it up with Dignity and Shame (a concept album) and now we are here with Forfeit/Fortune.

Crooked Fingers dares to grow musically and this album has more of a "Pop" feel. More harmonies than previous releases. His voice sounds great against female vocalists, a nice contrast. More synths (Your Control) yet still nylon guitars (¡No Me Lo Des!) and cello. But wait, horns (What Never Comes) and Balkan influenced instrumentation (Let's Not Pretend (To Be New Men))

This guy is dedicated to his music, I saw a show where he was catching a nap in a van parked outside the club (NYC) after driving there. Show biz is so glamorous.

No flash in the pan, check out the entire Crooked Fingers discography. Eric is one of the best songwriters out there...period!

Let us not forget that Mr. Bachmann is capable of writing a modern day rock anthem about something as mundane/existential as an unspecified problem with his (presumably breakfast) toast (see "Toast" by the Archers of Loaf). I was heartbroken when the Archers disbanded, as they recorded some of the most brilliant pop music ever put to disc or tape (I don't think there's ever been a more effective use of a vocoder than on "One Slight Wrong Move" from the Archers brilliant "White Trash Heroes").

This disc shows a natural progression, I think, of where the Archers were headed, much more so than the other Crooked Fingers releases. "Cannibals", for example, sounds like it could've been an outake from "White Trash Heroes" with it's lovely concertina riff and proud anthemic strumming. I'm not positive what it's about, but it sure sounds like a bitter lamentation on the trappings of fame. I'm still wiping the piles of bile from under my speakers. And I agree that the songs "Modern Dislocation" and "Your Control" are just brilliant. Sort of like Thin White Rope meets Jesus Lizard--and that could never be a bad thing.

But then again, a hundred million people could be wrong.

My first Crooked Fingers album was Dignity and Shame, which I think is a brilliant mix of pop and country. Red Devil Dawn was much more country oriented, but still mostly good. Bring on the Snakes was even further down the country scale and I liked it much less.

This album follows the trend of dropping the country sound for pop music. A lot of these songs would be at home on a Top 40 station. The Crooked Fingers experiment with a lot of sounds on this album, but in the end, the pop music sound is not something I'm looking for. I don't see myself listening to this album that often.