Mellow fellows
- In Praise of Folly - The Present Age
- Release Date: 04/20/2004
- Let the rains keep falling in Seattle if it helps bands like IPOF maintain their angst.
- Buy the album or vic a few free MP3s here!
Is it the rain in Seattle that makes all the music that comes out of it so dank and murky?
From Jimi Hendrix and the sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), to the Nirvana-led grunge movement of the early ‘90s and thereafter, nothing musical reverberating from this Pacific Northwest city ever seems to come across as uplifting or inspiring, and I’m apt to wonder if, indeed, gloomy skies are really to blame.
Latest evidence: In Praise of Folly, the most recent addition to my musical library.
Without knowing from where the lads of IPOF hailed, I gave their 2004 effort The Present Age a whirl late one Sunday afternoon. About halfway through the CD I blurted out, man, these cats must be from Seattle. Sure enough, after scanning the liner notes, it turns out my intuition was dead-on, though I was hardly surprised.
But the fact that I was able to peg this band geographically within a few songs should not dull the shine from this record. The Present Age may be gloomily flecked with themes that depress and forebode the negative, but it really is a very solid effort from start to finish.
“I Used To Care,” the tepid opening track that immediately pedestals lead singer Benjamin Verdoes’ amazingly melancholic vocals, segues sleekly into “Typical,” one of the more buoyant ditties on the CD, before giving way to the brilliance of “Back and Forth.” Part lounge, part emo but all captivating, this is the defining tune of The Present Age and a wonderful example of the band’s talents as a whole. Clocking in at more than six minutes, not only does this jam showcase each gifted facet of IPOF – from dueling guitars and ragged, arrhythmic drumming to Verdoes’ penchant for the high notes – but it leaves you craving more.
Which is a good thing and exactly what the next track, “The Sky Directly,” provides. But the album starts to come apart a tad after that with a few of the songs coming across as anemic and fading in and out with far less fanfare than earlier ones. It’s not until “Seemingly Perfect” that we get a glimpse that IPOF can write and record a traditional rock ‘n’ roll song. Sounding a lot like Seattle grunge predecessors Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, this tune’s ability to hearken back to a time of flannel shirts and ripped jeans is a refreshing jolt to an otherwise subdued recording.
Though it probably can never be proven that a lack of sunshine and copious amounts of rain translate directly into a society of overwrought (and, some may say, overcaffeinated) musicians with an affinity for melancholic creativity, it’s certainly a laudable hypothesis. And with the way Seattle bands like In Praise of Folly are able to take that genre of angst and yearning and constantly re-invent it only goes to show you that in addition to rain, quality music is in no short supply in this Northwestern city.
