Farewell, My Love – Gold Tattoos
Five young men have gathered together to share their own personal tales of hardships, triumphs and passions. To do so they have taken to music as a release outlet, rolling their emotions and experiences into lyrics and accompanying them with music to create some tough pop-rock tunes.
From the dramatic opening of Afraid Of The Dark through to the sinister giggle of The Queen Of Hearts, there is not one moment of boredom with this album, not one tune you want to skip or hurry through. The tunes in the middle consist of melodic guitars by Röbby Creasey and Logan Thayer, bass sections by Charlee Conley and accompanying crashes of drums thanks to Chad Kowal and to top things off is the intense vocal of Ryan Howell. Each track takes these core elements and then uses them in various ways.
My Perfect Thing has some emotive power when things are made a little poppier as it sings about the emotional state you can get it to when you love someone. It is the type of track you can almost visualise in some teen flick about love and falling. Faceless Frames remains upbeat and has an almighty guitar solo; the keys an even greater impact. Nostalgia is an under a minute snippet of music that leads into Skip The Memories, a track about loss and the fact that time cannot be rewound. Both this track and Friends & Fiends are songs you can't help but sing along with. Angels sounds deeper in its melodies with some harder guitars and keys adding an almost magical emphasis to the lyrics. The album's title track is a guaranteed crowd pleaser that will have everyone singing along. While Mirror, Mirror is an identity crisis rolled into three minutes. Beginning with sharp guitars and containing yet another strong guitar solo, the track pounds through with an almost magical Mirror Mirror on the Wall..." feel that sends visions spiking through the mind.
Rewind The Play opens with a much more acoustic approach with keys and strings, and subtly slides quite quickly into something more powerful. Towards the end the two are combined very well with some backing harmonies. Paper Forts is a piano based tune that really emphasises the vocal talents, emotions and vocal range of Ryan Howell. With the introduction of another vocal and then some strings, the track is one of the highlights of the album.
If you have ever listened to an album for the first time and instantly felt something click, something that drags you in for more, then this is going to be one of those albums. When a live show promises to entrance the audience, while giving them a more theatrical approach which will whisk them away from their own lives and transport them somewhere else, the UK waits in anticipation for a visit from Farewell, My Love.