Jul 19, 2008

Falcon - Self-Titled EP (Friends Of The American Songbook, 2008)

Falcon's debut EP is as good as any that In(High)Fidelity has heard in recent times. Soaring and cinematic, even at is most powerful moments, there is a fragility to Falcon's music that keeps it from floating beyond the stratosphere.
Jared Falcon was a song-writing prodigy in the small town of Petaluma, California. Recording over 300 songs onto a Fisher Price tape recorder before finishing high school. To say that Falcon was prolific a prolific writer would be an understatement. Sadly, though, while Falcon was able to translate his view of the world into songs of heartbreaking beauty, he was not able to detach himself from that same heartbreaking world, and, as a result of poor mental health, was never able to properly record his amazing songs.
Enter Shannon Ferguson and Neil Rosen, two of Falcon's classmates, who, having relocated to New York City, have paid the ultimate tribute to their troubled comrade, by recording his songs in a manner that does them the justice they deserve.
The opening track, The Sandfighter, is a slow-burning gem, that sets the tone of this compelling collection of songs. Comparisons to the likes of Arcade Fire and the National start here - and are well deserved.
With five songs recorded for this EP, In(High)Fidelity's mathematics whizz has calculated that their remain... a lot of songs yet to be put to wax (and he didn't even use a calculator). With so many songs yet to be recorded, we can only hope that a full-length Falcom album will follow shortly.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/falconmusic

Key Tracks: It's only five songs... all of them.