Fake Problems, How Far Our Bodies Go

Fake Problems’ comparisons to fellow Floridian musicians Against Me! are too obvious, so I’ll do my best to avoid comparing them to each other. But think Against Me! without a political slant and with fewer exclamation points. The songs on How Far Our Bodies Go aren’t too catchy, which is a good thing because today’s music overdoes catchiness to try and sell more records. Said catchy music becomes too temporary and superficial. You can only hear “Hey Miss Murder, Can I?” so many times before your coworkers start to look less like potential social interactions and more like potential victims. But let’s change the subject.

The album sounds to me like kids who got bored and decided to start a band and one of them sings just like the guy from Against Me!… Whoops, sorry, won’t happen again. How Far Our Bodies Go is full of non-sappy love songs with angry, defiant lyrics that give the band a charming vulnerability. The title track is the standout on the album, being the catchy sing-along drunk song it is. It’s simply too short, like most songs on the album. The main offender there, actually, is “Para Tu,” which sounds like it’s going to turn into this great epic love song but ends just when the horns swell. The band has amazing potential but they’re really holding back here, especially lyrically. The lyrics are straightforward and honest to a fault. There’s not really any mystery or tact to them.

Fake Problems has a refreshing Southern influence and the band doesn’t really sound like what I’d think Florida would sound like. The band members know how to use uneven tempos to keep the album interesting, and there’s a nice assortment of quirky instruments like a banjo or a harpsichord. So it’s a fun and eclectic album, but that’s about it. Sadly, the over-gravelly vocals kill it for me. They give the band this odd incongruency that doesn’t mesh well. But maybe that’s part of their charm, because it doesn’t really take away from their sound, young and clean as it is. Now if they can just polish everything up a bit.