I Farm

IV

Written by: ASH on 09/05/2006 20:40:01

It's not only Godsmack who picks a fight with 'genious' album titles. The American punk-rock band I Farm takes their chances in the same path with their fourth studio album, hence the title "IV", and intimidates us by calling themselves an outcome of a one night stand between "The Descendents" and "Slayer". Oh really? Nevertheless, they've released an album with a whooping number of fourteen different punk rock tracks filled with stormy lyrics, melodic sing-along choruses and blazing, metallic guitars.

After skipping through the tracks of "IV" I couldn't get the thought: "Shi...fourteen tracks of this? Come on", off my mind. They jumpstart the album with "Hung By The Bootstraps", which at first sounds like something that has been heard again and again on many other records. It then goes into weird vocals that don't fit the instruments in any seemingly plausible way. And when the track finally finds its way to its ending the vocalist mourns out a devilish laugh. 'Hah, hah, hah,' - so funny. Not. At this moment I felt like this album was just another one of those cheap-ass albums whose creators are so full of themselves, so they think they can do anything without a consequence. But after fighting myself through some of their more uninteresting tracks like "G Samsu" and "I Hit My Head", I found that there are some tracks left on the album that sound intelligent and aren't half assed. Take "Rayuela", the sixth track on this lengthy album, for instance. It has a good sound, the lyrics are so-so, but I see that this track along with the seventh track "Gurus" would be the direction to go for instead of all the other mindless waste that they pour out through my speakers.

And finally, "highly intelligent lyrics"...If they are so highly intelligent why do they then mostly consist of one single sentence on a constant repeat? I really hope that the final track "Knucklehead" is a joke taken out of the context because by repeating "Figure it out knucklehead", "You don't really understand", and "Why don't you get a real job?", I don't see any intelligence at all by those "punch-lines". Sure, they're straightforward and the track is only 52 seconds, but placing it under "highly intelligent" or what I read another place as: "Great" simply doesn't correspond with what I hear.

To sum it up, "IV" has too many downs to drag it up and to few ups to keep it moving in a positive direction. So Josh, John and Arun, maybe it's just me or something but try again another time?

5

Download: Dolphin Fight, Rayuela
For the fans of: The Distillers, The Descendents
Listen: I Farm @ Myspace

Release date 06.05.2006
Go Kart Records
Provided by Target ApS

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