On The Wing Now

Foreign Born | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: August 21, 2007
• Label: Dim Mak Records
• Copyright: (c) 2007 Dim Mak Inc.
• Total Length: 50:33
• Genres: Alternative Rock/Indie & Lo-Fi, Pop/Pop Rock
• ASIN: B0011V25FU
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,010 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars an epic psychedelic guitar pop elegance, November 12, 2009

By 

Charlie Quaker "The Quaker Goes Deaf" (Normal, IL.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: On the Wing Now (Audio CD)

Los Angeles' Foreign Born know how to put a song together. Their full length debut combines an irresistibly epic, dramatically psychedelic guitar style with exigent vocals and a powerfully driven rhythm section. This is not a new invention, but the delivery and the songwriting are exceptional. Think early U2, Jesus & Mary Chain, Walkmen, Chameleons, Sprirtualized, Echo & the Bunnymen, Secret Machines, etc. If "big" and "urgent" ring your bell, the hallways of your brain are in for a fervent reverberation.

Impressions, song by song:
"Union Hall"--This powerful and subtle opener is a mesmerizingly monastic rhythm chant that spreads a surface of safety; where compelling, plaintive vocals dance in a determined plea, wiggling the best glimpse of insight that can be found on a late night barstool.
"Into Your Dream"--Grabbing, pounding rhythm and munching mantra guitar line reflect rock-hard psychedelics from the lava core flow of fuzz rock, all hot and dangerous with possibility and energy.
"Trial Wall"--The opening notes establish an immediate epic quality, evolving into a sort of (not too) gently roaring grandeur built on drone-pop guitar strokes and a repetitive, Bowie-influenced chorus that sticks in your head. Picture green fields on a mountainside, rippled by wind and kissed by a band of overly erotic angels.
"It Wasn't Said To Ask"--A mid-tempo number that rolls with the calm aggression of California Kaleidoscope pop; mixing a smooth, driving rhythm section with guitars that swing from muted raw rock to soaring psychedelic riffs.
"Letter Of Inclusion"--Guitars chime a ringing invitation to compellingly ragged drone-chords, laying the path to a disturbed beauty nestled in the soft cradle of a chorus line that rings promises like clothes flying off lovers. And the song does reach a climax.
"The Nights Tall"--This controlled sprawl of an inner space probe is wrapped in an urgent sense of self-examination. It starts with a captivatingly haunting tribal drum, soothed by gorgeously bombinating harmonic vocals and subtle spitfire guitar bursts disguised as exploding candy shotgun shells--a splitter-splatter of pattern matter in kaleidoscopic evolution.
"Don't Take Back Your Time"--A seething churn of classic, epic psychedelic mantra rock; radiating brooding shoegazer waves like diamond stardust flying from fingers of blissed-out faerie stoners.
"Holy Splinter"--A yearning, looming psych/folk pursuit that uncovers a delicate underboil of simmering, hypnotic color trails; the gentle spread of meshing elements seeking the salvation of density through beauty.
"Keep It All Inside"--This heavenly rush of empyrean euphoria is punctuated by pulsating waves of My Bloody Valentine tremors; a soaring, celestial gathering of cone ring quivers, coyly huddling in the eternal bounce formation of the Michelin Man on ecstasy.
"In the Shape"--Another gigantic glow-spark of grandiose ballad-rock, an extended hook in a medium-tempo meridian of sound--like floating on a giant beach ball in Echo & the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain", nothing but blue sky and rolling waves forever.
"Never Wrong"--The kind of closer that makes you want to go back to the first song and start all over. A huge, ever-expanding ball of gliding melody in the sort of uber-epic scope that recalls the vital grandeur of U2's first album.

"On the Wing Now" has a uniquely dark elegance, which accentuates the subtle power of psychedelic pop repetition in the arena of epic song structures. It's a powerful debut; large enough in scope to encompass the friendship of freshness and familiarity. You get comfort and excitement in one package. This is good.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best of 2007, September 12, 2007

By 

E. FREYMUTH "Ridley1979" (Austin, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On the Wing Now (Audio CD)

Easily my favorite new album of 2007. Somewhat of a sonic mash-up of U2, The Smiths, Jesus & Mary Chain and Echo & the Bunnymen, with maybe a dash of Kitchens of Distinction in there. (Is this suddenly sounding like a Pitchfork review or what?). Comparisons aside, the album is stellar from start to finish, with narely a weak track. If alternative radio latches onto "It Wasn't Said to Ask", "Letter of Inclusion" and/or "In the Shape," this album is going to explode. Kudos to the band for album closer "Never Wrong," a haunting rocker that would have felt right at home on the Bunnymen's "Ocean Rain."