For those of us not in the know Ultimate Fakebook are reuniting to bring us the bands fifth album 16 years after the fourth one! They come straight out of Manhattan only not the one you're thinking of in New York but the one in Kansas and they play very catchy Powerpop indie punk.
The album opens with the 33 second intro of Javea before they get down to business properly with We're Sharing The Same Dream Tonight that sounds like a perfect blast of turn of the millennium powerpop punk in the Weezer meets Blink 182 and wants to sound deeper than Sum 41 as hopefully they sing about singing Bowies version of Across The Universe rather than the crappy original and yes I can imagine sharing this dream with them.
Afterhours is in no way as fragile and wondrous at the Velvet Underground classic on this subject, but instead is a Poppily intense plea for some more and somewhere else to go and watch some VHS and all sorts of other things on this sort of list song that sounds like it was written with a cheeky video for VH1 in mind, it's the sort of song that ends in in perpetual rotation on indie pop rock radio stations.
Sad Soldier seems to have stolen a tune from Last Great Dreamers, but then they probably stole it from the same glam rock record this one steals it from, as they sing about the Sad Soldier who may well be stuck in his own PTSD world trying to recover from what he's seen and wished he hadn't, but the song is in no way a downer having a good stomp along feel to it.
Juliet's Fool is nice and slow with just piano and vocals and some strings and feels like a plaintive plea for forgiveness and a chance to get back with your childhood sweetheart, of course life got in the way of Juliet being your lifelong partner. Will this win her back well maybe.
Manhattan KS is the bands paean to there own home town with the odd side swipe at the other Manhattan and a good list of why you'd want to be in Kansas over the sort of Poppy punk that makes me remember seeing Alien Ant Farm live and I can't decide if that's a good or bad thing, either way this songs a great romp with some very cool guitar work.
Unfrozen Girl is like a less psychedelic but just as catchy Velvet Crush circa Teenage Symphonies To God and this will be just as easy to hear on repeat as anything on that album.
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Hey Gemini sounds familiar and possibly a touch on the generic side but still has more than enough going on with what happens with the strings and keyboards to make you have to think of three or four different Weezer tunes it might remind you of.
My Music Industry may be different to your music industry but either way it will leave you struggling for breath if you try dancing to this at the pace it's played at while you record your MP3's on your USB drive rather than going old school and putting out cassettes as they beg for you to go straight to bandcamp and download there catalogue.
Sequel begs one question what is it a Sequel too as it's not as obvious as say Ashes To Ashes and Space Oddity but then fans of ultimate fakebook will probably go of course it's a sequel to the bands third single and it may well be, but I'd need to have a clue as to what that sounded like to know for sure.
Fake ID is something these guys don't need any more unless of course they are going all Walter White on us as this slow song ponders what you could be getting up to, or what they got up too, back when they needed that Fake ID while dreaming of how to update Brian Wilson's windswept over-produced balladry and they may have just spent 16 years figuring out just how to do that.
The album closes with the radio edit of afterhours and to be honest I hadn't noticed anything offensive the first time round and this is to my ears just another version of the song that becomes catchier and catchier with every listen as does most of this album.
Find out more at https://www.sonicritualrecordings.com/copy-of-ultimate-fakebook https://sonicritualrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-preserving-machine http://www.ufbrocks.com/
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