A few months ago, I came across Feral Children's SXSW EP, a four-song sampler showcasing some of the Seattle quintet's strongest tracks to date. If you were a fan of that EP too, than you'll be happy to know that all four of those songs can be found on Second To The Last Frontier, Feral Children's reissued full length, released last month. Although it may be a reissue, this album is Feral Children's grand introduction to fans outside the Seattle area, and it's safe to say they come out swinging; their raw and unruly Yeasayer-meets-Modest Mouse sound radiates from each of the twelve tracks on Frontier.
The album opens with singers Jim Cotton and Jeff Keenan trading vocal yelps on "Spy/Glass House," and never once lets up, or allows the listener to predict what they're going to hear next. "Billionaires vs Millionaires" plays like the best song Modest Mouse never wrote, while "Baby Joseph Stalin" is reminiscent of Man Man, with jumpy piano and maniacal laughter, with a little more melodic cohesion than Man Man are capable of, and "Jaundice Giraffe" is creepy in the best way possible, full of haunting vocal harmonies, echoed guitar riffs, and a refrain of "They love your skin / They love your yellow skin, they do."
A handful of tracks later and Frontier delivers another one-two punch with "Cannibal Prison" and "Lost In The Woods," the former focusing on Cotton's commanding vocals, with piano and guitar scales that beautifully crash into one another, and the latter a seven-minute plus epic that is Feral Children at their most restrained and, dare I say, mellow. Just like on their EP, Frontier closes with "Zhyghost", forcefully summing up the entire album with its galloping chords, tribal-sounding drums, and driven bass line.
Not very often does an album come along where recommending every track feels appropriate, but in this case it's hard to refrain from singing the praises of every vocal inflection, every mesmerizing guitar riff, and every well-written lyrical twist that comprises Frontier. As if it wasn't clear enough already, this album is going to blow your mind. Jump on the bandwagon now, before Pitchfork and Stereogum steal this band out of the unknown and place them where they rightfully belong, alongside their more successful indie-rock peers.