Farewell Flight: Sound. Color. Motion.
I’m a bit late to the party on this one judging by the response I’ve already heard from local music fans, but we’ll pretend it’s fashionably late. I got a copy of local band Farewell Flight’s debut full-length album Sound. Color. Motion. just before their release party at Champion Ship a few weeks ago, but I didn’t get a chance to really listen to it until this afternoon. Now I can tell you, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard from a local band in a long time.
Classifying music as “indie” is generally meaningless, but it’s a lazy tag that nevertheless fits Farewell Flight snugly. Their sound resembles “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes” era Death Cab For Cutie, only a little bit less fuzzy. They rely heavily on the piano to drive the album, but some of Sound. Color. Motion.’s (That’s a punctuation nightmare) hidden gems revolve around Timmy Moslener’s nifty guitar work.
A band can only go as far as its lead singer can carry it, and Farewell Flight has a chance to go pretty far on the back of Luke Foley’s excellent vocals. Foley’s voice is gut-wrenchingly poignant on tracks like “A Lullaby For Insomniacs” and “Over,” and one of my only complaints about the album is that sometimes he just needs to be allowed to sing. “Widower” is an otherwise gorgeous song that suffers from over-distorted vocals.
Foley’s crystal-clear delivery brings the lyrics to the forefront of the album, and it is the lyrics that interested me the most. I had seen reviews of the album on a few Contemporary Christian Music websites and I know that Farewell Flight played at Purple Door, but if Sound. Color. Motion. projects any Christian ideology, it’s buried pretty deep. After a few listens, the album seems to revolve around themes like alcoholism, melancholy, listlessness and untapped potential. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe instead of being a Christian rock band Farewell Flight is just a rock band whose members are Christian.
On the album-opening “A Lullaby For Insomniacs” Foley asks the listener to “Tilt your glasses steep/ and drain them if you’re like me/ filled up with apathy/ worn out, excepting defeat/ concur if you’re at home/ and you’re getting drunk alone/ in front of the TV/ stone faced and falling asleep/ then smile because this one’s for you/ and the troubles you’ve gotten into.” There are lighter moments, but honestly, I enjoy the album most when it’s at its most introspective. Tracks like “A Lullaby…” “Sailor’s Mouth,” and “Begin Again” will keep me listening to Sound. Color. Motion. for quite a while.
The album is not available for purchase on iTunes at this time, but it can be purchased—along with t-shirts and other merchandise—from the band’s Myspace page. The band tours exhaustively, and is honestly only back in the area occasionally, but if you’d like to see them live, they will actually be at The Depot in York tomorrow night. Check them out one way or another.
6 comments so far. Sweet.
"Maybe instead of being a Christian rock band Farewell Flight is just a rock band whose members are Christian." Bingo -- it's nice to see that someone gets it. We love Jesus, but not the Christian music scene. How does one even classify something as "Christian" music? Christianity should be lived out daily, not used for the promotion of a genre or to sell albums. - Marc (drummer for Farewell Flight)
I thought they were an alright band until I learned they're a Christian one.
Dear Sam "Sharpe": we are all praying for you -- to learn to read!
Why is my last name in quotations?
Going to take a stab at this one. :) It's perhaps as if to say you're missing the point, Sam Sharpe, and instead being obtuse rather than what your name would suggest. Listen, I'm not trying to ruffle feathers. I have to agree that I am definitely not much of a "Christian music fan", if I can call songs that express religious themes overtly as such. But I, like reviewer Justin and drummer Marc, would not seem to classify this band to such a limiting stereotype. I was actually surprised to even read that they had such an appellation because at first listen to the album I definitely missed any sweeping references to religion if there are any. Spirituality is inherent as a way of life for most people. Not something that is just tacked on as ancillary. No, I think this album deserves to stand on its own legs as just good music, plain and simple. Do not be discouraged from appreciating this music should you have a personal aversion to organized religion or something in that regard because you'd be missing out on some solid artists. Good job, guys. I'm quite enjoying.
It's pretty depressing when people are so short-sighted that they immediately change their mind about something being "good" or not based on something like religion. As a member of a band (who has played shows with Farewell Flight and find that they are awesome dudes on and off stage, regardless of anything related to religion or any other personal convictions of theirs), I'm glad when I talk to people who seem to have some sort of depth or substance. A small but usually accurate indicator of this can be whether or not they hold opinions like the one Sam has voiced. A lot of bands find it sort of comforting that their fans aren't hipsters, bigots, or just overtly judgmental people in general. It's good that people like Sam find out that bands they like are Christians or so- five-minutes-ago or whatever it is that these people choose to hate at the moment so they can turn on them and talk shit about them because of factors that are completely irrelevant to the way the songs vibrate in his ears. I hope that Sam isn't older than maybe 16 or so, because that would be pretty sad. I also hope he eventually opens his mind up a little bit and enables his self to enjoy things in a bit more of a detached fashion. It can be pretty refreshing.