Fairweather – Lusitania

1)  Fairweather – Lusitania

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“this town is a ghost town, of funerals and lets downs.
The list of dead goes on and on and on.
The sidewalks ache from the weight of holding,
up broken hearts. I’m giving up on moving on.
What used to fill these streets with life,
has thrown a brick right through our lives now.
Don’t hold back. So forget about the bricks,
we wear around our necks, 
And forget about every second up to this. 
Here’s to the walking casualties of heavy handed,
subtlety. So raise a drink, we’ll break the windows
and the chairs, and finally start a fire burning,
at both ends. I might be everything to you need
and you might be the same for me.
We got out fast, burning at both
ends”

You know that one cd in your collection that you were super let down by when it first came out but as you matured and your musical tastes became more refined you grew to love it?  Fairweather’s Lusitania is that cd for me.

When I was in high school I was really into pop punk.  Blink 182, Screeching Weasel, NoFx, Millencolin - that kind of pop punk.  I spent many afternoons on Napster searching for new bands to quench my pop punk thirst.  That’s when I first came across the Virgina based rock band Fairweather.

I discovered Fairweather shortly after they released their first full length album If They Move…Kill Them (2001).  That cd was refreshing for me because it combined aspects of the familiar pop punk that I had grown to love – high pitched vocals, high energy, etc - with a tougher hardcore sound that I had yet to be exposed to.  If They Move… had a few really great songs on it, but the cd as a whole wasn’t that great.

I was stoked to get my hands on their next full length Lusitania (2003) because I was expecting a great record full of pop punk gems.  Needless to say, I was extremely let down upon first listen.  This music wasn’t familiar to me, these song structures weren’t pop punk, when did they decide to branch out into indie rock territory?  I put the album in a drawer and didn’t pull it out for a few months.

Then one night I was lying in bed trying to get some sleep while my roommate blasted Duran Duran in the living room.  I decided to put on some headphones to try and drown out the 80′s synth that was booming through the vents.  I decided to give Fairweather another chance so I  put on Lusitania and intently listened to the album.  That night it dawned on me that I had found my new favorite record.  

“”Lusitania” is the record we’ve all been waiting for. A rejuvenating, beautiful sound from an experienced band, and while the sound is completely unexpected from them, Fairweather really blew me away. A running time of 60 minutes is perhaps the explanation; the CD is packed with emotive destruction, and lots of interludes and dark, almost evil breakdowns and melodies. Perhaps what I love most about “Lusitania” is it’s inevitable reliance on moods. Each song showcases a dark mood, but some present it in a little crisper, more straight-forward sound (as in “Letter Of Intent,” which is reminiscent to their debut LP), and others are slow, ambient ballads which can only remind me of the blessed shoegazer rock of Europe (“I Dread The Time When Your Mouth Begins To Call Me Hunter”).”  Full Review HERE.

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