Garage
rock is a rather curious genre, to say the
least. By definition, the music should be
spontaneous and unscripted, as if the listener
was standing around some garage watching a
couple of guys fuck around with instruments
and having a good time.
Forbidden Tigers is about as “garage”
as bands come, and yet they struggle and ultimately
fail as such.
The first flaring anti-garage maneuver the
band makes is the overwhelming production
on “Magnetic Problems.” They were
given far too much time to fiddle around with
the effects. Random reverbs are thrown around
like they were going out of style (which,
as a result, they kinda were) and the vocals
are annoyingly scuzzed up. It’s clear
that they’re going for that we-are-so-raw
sound, but it comes across as more annoying
than raw.
Songs on the album are fast and short, but
I have a sinking suspicion that the band just
didn’t have all that much material to
put on record. The songs are underdeveloped,
with forgettable lyrics and short, choppy
guitar solos that are uninspired at best.
They also tend to resort to spelling out words
to fill out empty choruses, a tactic that
is fine for one track, not fine for multiple
tracks on an album that runs just under twenty-five
minutes long.
Monotony is broken up occasionally on a few
bits of genuinely interesting songs. “Can
of Beans” is a slower, twangy 41-seconds
of a track that hints at Southern Rock while
keeping up with the rawness they seem so desperate
to exude.
The band takes a bit of a harmonica break
during “Son of a Carnivore,” the
album’s standout track in my eyes. It’s
definitely the most developed song on the
album, with passable guitar work and some
actual effort to control the song’s
pacing as it builds up, breaks down via harmonica,
and then congeals back together to its jumpy
conclusion.
The musicians themselves sound pretty good,
if you can imagine the band playing without
all of the production. I’m sure they’re
decent live, but I honestly can’t tell
from this album alone. If you like short fast
rock in the vein of The Ramones, this album
should hold you over until another band comes
along and blows the genre out of the water.
– Zach Huff
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