Folly – Insanity Later

Now I came home from school a couple days ago and found Folly‘s latest disc, Insanity Later, lying comfortably in the middle of my kitchen table. I picked it up, and looked at the artwork. I liked it. That gave me hope for the album from this band that I’ve never heard of before. I flipped the case over and scanned over the tracklisting. Good names, another good sign. And then voila, right under track 12 I saw:Produced by Sal Villanueva. Boy was I excited! I mean, when I see that name, the only band that springs to mind is Taking Back Sunday as he was the mastermind behind Tell All Your Friends. So now I can’t wait to hear the album, so what else is there to do then sit down and take a listen? After hearing the second song, the first being a introduction, I realized I had set myself up for a let down. Folly is not remotely similar to TBS is any shape or form. They are, a screamo band; and screamo isn’t a genre that I like much. Fans of Alexisonfire will instantly fall in love with Folly, as they are very similar to one another. But in my opinion, Folly does many things in a much better way the Alexis does.

First off, they don’t only have screaming vocals. Every once in a while they change it up and just sing; like in Discussion Is For The Pigs. This gives us a little break from the bombardment of screams that you get for most of the album. Secondly, the lyrics are really quite good. Unlike Alexis‘s few lines per song, they actually have a large amount of lyrics per song; and good ones at that, full of philosophical questions and eye opening situations. It would just be better if you could make them out in amongst all the screaming. The last thing, and the thing that saves this album, is the instrumentals. They are amazing. Like most harcord, screamo bands, they are loud and obnoxious at times. But then there are times when you are just like “wow, this is awesome”. Take Today Jeremy Challenges The World for example, the musical portions for most of that song is really quite attracting.

I set myself up for a letdown after expecting something like Taking Back Sunday, but finding Alexisonfire instead. But if you take the time to listen to it, it does grow on you a bit; but if you are like me and greatly dislike screamo, then ignore this band and move onto your next choice while sceamo fans should jump at the opportunity to buy this album.