Fake Believe, Talk Speak EP

Fake Believe, Talk Speak EP

While there’s nothing strictly wrong with the first two tracks of Fake Believe’s five-song EP, Talk Speak, I’ll admit they had me a little worried. The too-slick, hipster-ish dance-funk grooves on the verses of both “Pornography” and “Another Dead Romantic” didn’t get more than a shrug out of me — when there’s enough of a Rapture-like edge to the danciness, this sort of thing can work, definitely, but here it just seems like it’s killing time between the choruses, which are nicely fierce and rock-ish.

With “Card Homes,” though, things really start to look up. It’s a delicious, lush-yet-dark blast of synth-y pop-rock that gets manages to be ferocious and emo-boy raw while still holding onto that smooth, metallic sheen that covers the whole of Talk Speak; when the chorus comes, I want to drive fast and far away, howling along with guitarist/vocalist David Elbert’s increasingly tortured voice, and surprisingly, it hits me the same damn way each and every time I skip back to the start of the track. There’s just something about Elbert’s voice that fits perfectly here, and it’s hooked me hard.

“Warm Enough” continues in that vein, thankfully, ditching the proto-funk for more serious-sounding electro-rock as on “Card Homes,” with those Anniversary-esque, sci-fi-sounding synths and the little electronicized production touches throughout giving everything a near-future, right-around-the-corner feel. The track starts quiet and almost Portishead-like, but soon enough the melancholy gives way to bitter, just-distorted guitars, only to collapse eventually into pianos and drifting clouds, finally coming back in sky-high and coolly majestic, soaring way the hell over everything below.

Things come back down to earth for “Temporary,” which overstays its welcome just a bit, but even then I’m liking the layer-upon-layer way the band’s crafted their sound. In the hands of a different band, sure, I’ll grant that it might come off a bit self-indulgent, all the studio bits and the ultra-clean production and whatnot. On this EP, though, with these guys — hell, it just sounds like it was meant to be this way. And then, I feel the need to hear “Card Homes” again.

[Fake Believe is playing 9/12/09 at Cactus Music and again at The Festival at Mink, along with a bunch of other cool bands.]
(self-released; Fake Believe -- http://fakebelieveband.com/)
BUY ME: CDBaby

Review by . Review posted Friday, September 11th, 2009. Filed under Features, Reviews.

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2 Responses to “Fake Believe, Talk Speak EP”

  1. SPACE CITY ROCK » Yes, Indeed! 2014 Rundown, Pt. 2: Handsomebeast + The Trimms + After Nations + Another Run + Poor Pilate + Lion Among Men + Fake Believe on September 13th, 2014 at 4:51 pm

    […] I heard/saw the band, it was back in 2009 at Rudyard’s; they’d recently released their Talk Speak EP, and while I’ll admit I wasn’t completely sold on the EP, it was extremely promising, […]

  2. SPACE CITY ROCK » Yr. Weekend, Pt. 1: Red Fang + In Flames + Opeth + The Brunson Theater + Fake Believe + Two Star Symphony + Before There Was Rosalyn + these days + More on December 12th, 2014 at 4:32 pm

    […] Fake Believe, back from the great beyond to rock once again. The band’s 2009 EP, Talk Speak, had a few issues but was pretty promising overall, and live the band was a lot of fun, so I was […]

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