Loomis Fargo Gang; The: Humans, Nature And Human Nature

Creating an indie-pop take on folk and gentle sombre rock and roll, Humans. Nature And Human Nature is the debut album from Virginia Beach outfit The Loomis Fargo Gang. The band themselves, who comprised of Michael Bosler on vocals and guitar, with Tyler Nash and Michael Pilapil as multi-instrumental backing vocalists (the band have expanded to a five piece sincs the album was released) describe their music as "dreamy rock" and in the sense that much of this could send you to sleep, that is really pretty accurate.

The themes are mainly laid back and simple, with nice acoustic strumming often being the order of the day and Bosler's questionable vocals running alongside. There are many other elements running through the songs, but all too often the temptation for The Gang is to replace melody with an explosion of wacky guitars, or "noise" that seems to intentionally work at odds to the main melody. Whether this is an attempt to make the ever so sedate songs feel a little more edgy and tough I'm not sure, but whatever the motivation, it does little for them. Bosler has a bit of character to his voice when he uses the speaking in tune approach that has served Tom Petty so well over the years, however when he actually opens up and sings the results can be quite painful. So much so that someone who I played this album to actually winced when he heard "The Moon And Me", before asking me to put on a different disc to "clean their ears with". Now that is very harsh however I could hear where they were coming from and even though the ever so loose vibe to the songs allows a less polished vocal style, Bosler can certainly be a step too far for my tastes.

There are some fine moments on the disc, with "The Great Scapegoat" and "Alone" having a floating sixties vibe that is maybe something the band should focus on, but too often thngs just ramble on with little aim. This isn't a terrible album and there are most certainly some glimpses of what is maybe to come from The Loomis Fargo Gang in the future, but at the moment the minuses outweigh the pluses, making this a tough album to recommend.

Track Listing
1. You Used To Be A Tree
2. Summer, Where Have You Gone
3. I Sleep 'Till Noon
4. Alone
5. I Miss You
6. The Human Drama
7. The Grass Is Greener
8. Sun, Flower, Seed
9. The Great Scapegoat
10. The Moon And Me
11. Everybody's Changed

Added: October 9th 2010
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: The Loomis Fargo Gang
Hits: 1936
Language: english

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