The Foolish Relics’ debut album, “Too Old,” was released in October 2022 and brought the six-piece Florida ska-punk band some moderate levels of attention. They decided to self-release the follow-up EP and created a GoFundMe campaign to finance the album independently, without a record label. After hitting 150% of their fundraising goal, they have already pressed a second batch of vinyl, and the album hasn’t even been released yet. It’s safe to say the band is excited about this second album and the prospects it brings.
The album itself is 13 tracks of mostly ska punk, although they definitely invite a few more influences into the mix. The sound is fun, the songs tend to be catchy and easy to sing along with, and there is plenty to love in every song.
The album begins with a nice pop punk drum intro that leads into a wailing guitar solo, which I will always associate with the greatness of 80s glam metal. Before the horns jump in, they add more structure and set the tempo of the song. The bass line in this song is fucking terrific. This is a great introduction to the album, with solid gang vocals in the chorus, and an outstanding verse from Caitlin Edwards (of Bumsy and the Moochers and solo project Caitlin Edwards). The song is about someone just being shitty and saying inappropriate things to the song’s protagonist, and their response. While the song is catchy and not bad to sing along with, it feels like the best part is the intro guitar solo, and the rest of the song loses a little bit of that initial high.
“Around and Around” is another catchy track that is best carried by the drum rhythm through the verses, with more solid bass lines and a simple upstroke rhythm on the guitars. Lyrically, the song doesn’t seem to convey much beyond describing things that go around and around; however, this track does feature a terrific horn solo. It feels like the song is a vehicle for the solo, and an excuse to make a circle pit at live shows.
I feel like a lot of this album falls into this vein – songs that excel in one portion or another. Every song is good and excels in its own way, but few of them seem to bring everything together in a way that completely wows me. That’s not a bad thing – I enjoy every one of these songs, and I feel like they’re still getting better.
One of my favorite tracks is “Childlike Empress” – a retelling of the first time I watched The NeverEnding Story as a child and fell in love with the Childlike Empress. The gang vocals in this song are so damn good. The horns at the end of the song before the fadeout are amazing, and the fadeout being their own tribute to 80s music fits perfectly.
Nickajack Lake sounds so damn good, it’s such a fun singsongy style featuring “Have Gun Will Travel”, adding in banjo, violin, and slide guitar, creating a traditional country song, and they put in a nice jazzy horn solo in a song about despair and referencing Johnny Cash going to the same location to commit suicide before changing his mind and stepping away. The song concludes with approximately 2 minutes of rhyming short lines featuring the word “Nickajack” over the same rhythm, transitioning from a great, singsongy affair to stretched, forced rhymes. I feel like the end portion could be cut in half, and I’d absolutely love the song.
“JohnO’Dea” features Celtic punk rhythms and is a fictionalized version of a true story involving a real person named JohnO’Deaa, and was written after a Young Dubliners show. It’s definitely a fun song, well written and performed, and features vocals from Gemma Briggs.
The album is full of very solid tracks. I chose not to mention several of my favorite tracks, including Forget About Tomorrow (Is This Hell), Countdown, and Thank You 4 Skankin (DANCE!). The album is filled with solid tracks that make me happy, but most of them seem to lack something to truly wow me and make me fall in love. That’s not the case for “I Love You (I Mean It) “. If there is one A+ on the album, this is it. The drums propel the song forward, and the bass line stands out, keeping me engaged. The horns are terrific. Gang vocals to keep me and the crowd engaged during live versions, great vocals that are easy to sing along with. This is definitely my highlight of the album. It checks every box. It’s fast-paced, it’s fun, and it’s danceable. You can sing along. Honestly, I love this song, and it makes the whole album better.
Written by Gimp Leg
