Fake Problems – It’s Great To Be Alive

I sat down a little while ago with the intentions of finally reviewing Fake Problems sophomore full length album, It’s Great To Be Alive. In my head I had certain portions of it already written as I planned to point out the little oddities that flood the record and make it so memorable. But just before I went to sit down and review it, someone pointed me in the direction of Mammoth Press’ review of the record here. As I read it, my mind stopped and my initial review for the record was ruined. The author was right, to properly describe the record to you would, in fact, be a disservice.

You see, the heart and soul of It’s Great To Be Alive is the abnormalities present within it. At it’s roots you can easily compare it to their Floridian brethren in Against Me! without the angst of the older material or the polished aspects of their newer stuff and the band’s general intensity; but that too is doing a disservice as Fake Problems are not trying to be the next Against Me!. It’s just that they’re the most recognizable possible comparison, and the only one that comes remotely close to being an accurate representation of their sound.

And yet, there’s so much more. Every song soars through the use of the obscure and random elements. Disjointed rhythms and staccato beats aside, It’s Great To Be Alive is shocking and surprising because the structures of the songs are so unexpected and yet work well somehow. Throughout it all you get soaring horns that ebb and flow with emotion, building and growing and encompassing the listener while laying nicely in the background. You get strings, xylophones, cowbells, pedal steels and piano providing additional instrumentation while the vocal harmonies are equally as extravagant (one entire verse is sung with “do-do-do-do-do-da-do”s).

To describe where each of these little surprises come in would simply leave you searching for them instead of being taken away by them. Just like the writer in Mammoth Press said, to truly analyze the record would be a feat that would unintentionally destroy the beauty of the record. Because just as Nirvana was heralded for doing the unexpected and obscure with their lyrics, Fake Problems are doing the same with their music. So whether they stick to the Against Me! comparison or throw a curve ball and sound like Gogol Bordello, Fake Problems are always experimenting and while it sometimes feels uneasy (that disco/dance song still shocks me every listen), there’s so many jumps that it just seems natural.