Falling In Reverse

Fashionably Late

Written by: PP on 03/10/2013 23:30:36

"Don't get it twisted, ballistic, characteristics when I rip shit intricate / Visions of infinite wisdom empirical spiritual lyrical very cool synonyms / In layman's terms I am the best you must agree / I got that white boy swagger rappin' right down to a T"

Um, what?

That's an excerpt from "Rolling Stone", all but one in a sea of lyrical atrocities on the newest Falling In Reverse album "Fashionably Late", and that's only the beginning of the totally transparent idiocy that this album represents. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how bad taste manifests itself in sonic form.

It is no coincidence that the word 'fashionable' features itself as a part of the title, by the way. But where most bands choose one trend and stick with it for better or worse (Attack Attack! anyone?), Ronnie Radke & co basically carpet bomb through everything that has been popular in the last five or six years throughout the album in the hopes of something, anything catching on. This is like trawling the Atlantic Ocean with a net the size of Europe.

Virtually every trend is visited and revisited throughout the course of the album. Lyrically, there are mentions of Twitter, Google, and hashtags; musically we get treated to dubstep passages that transition in truest cut-and-paste style into humongous breakdowns, electro passages that turn into power pop, high-octane metalcore riffs that are spiced with Nintendo soundbites, completely out-of-place and dysfunctional hip hop/rap sections that transfer without warning into pop-metal that'd make the likes of Avenged Sevenfold and Dead By April blush for the sheer outrageousness of it all.

But granted, these songs are really, really catchy, even if they are tacky and completely, undeniably artificial in nature - but then again so are tracks by Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus and we all know the amount of depth and artistic integrity in their material is exactly zero. The amount of poseur vibe on this record is absolutely ridiculous, and I'm having a hard time coming up with a record that's more fake than this one. At least Hollywood Undead have, err, swagger and idiotic overconfidence on their side to make them a guilty pleasure for some. That said, I totally understand why kids up to 15-16 years old would fall for this stuff. After all, we all remember Limp Bizkit from our youth, right? But if you're seriously listening to Falling In Reverse as a 20 something year old, you honestly need to reexamine your life and meet some new people who can introduce you to real music.

Principally "Fashionably Late" is worth 1 or less, but I have to give it to Radke that the melodies he comes up with are darn catchy. I'm a sucker for those, even if I don't like to admit it. Admittedly, the record can also serve its purpose as a lame party starter to draw reactions of shock once you've had enough to drink, but then again Zebrahead is way better at doing just that without having to resort into acting and sounding like a bunch of douchebags over autotune rap, trendy electronics, and egotistical lyricism in this arena-core or whatever you want to call it. Avoid at all costs.

P.S. as a 90s kid, realizing this is on Epitaph makes me die a little bit inside

3

Download: Bad Girls Club, Rolling Stone, Alone
For the fans of: Brokencyde, Millionaires, Blood On The Dance Floor, That's Outrageous!, Hollywood Undead, Papa Roach
Listen: Facebook

Release date 18.06.2013
Epitaph

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