Album Review: The Fly Downs – At This Point In Time

Ottawa’s The Fly Downs are set to release their long awaited debut full length “At This Point In Time” via Thousand Islands Records on April 16th, the album follows on from their debut EP, and as far I can tell their sole previous release, 2017’s “Pockets Out“. In the years that have passed since their debut release the band have expanded their line up and sound and have been steadily, and it must be said quite slowly, working towards the release of their thirteen track debut. The opening track ‘Till Death Us Do Party‘ is a dense chugging heavyweight blast of pop punk, but don’t be put off by the pop punk tag if that isn’t your thing, this is punk rock that borrows the unpolished elements from far and wide and wedges them into a pop punk soundtrack. Throughout “At This Point In Time” there are memorable, and it must be said, at times, familiar, riffs that are coupled with hooky choruses that are delivered with a hedonistic energy.

Each of the thirteen cuts, including the three singles drawn from the album, ‘Crashing Down‘, ‘Head Held High‘ and ‘Nowhere To Go‘, are chock full of hooks, riffs, breakdowns, gang vocals and all the other prerequisite elements of pop punk, these are blended with a touch of discordant punk rock as well as elements of everything from math rock and metalcore to hardcore and metal making guest appearances. The end result is that The Fly Downs are a chimera of a band heading down their own eclectic path, they could equally be argued to be a natural evolution from the pop punk pioneers sound whilst simultaneously sounding like the more refined cousins of the likes of Trashed Ambulance and Ariel Salad. “At This Point In Time” is a pop punk album at it’s heart, but rather than the predictable polished radio friendly sound you’d expect, you get something raw and unpredictable that seems to almost randomly draw from other elements across the punk spectrum and beyond.

“At This Point In Time” can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp and Thousand Islands Records