Album review: Fake Problems: 'It's Great To Be Alive'

FAKE PROBLEMS: 'It's Great To Be Alive' (SideOneDummy)

Fake Problems are a really rather charming band. Their fusion of the musically barmy and the lyrically smirk-raising is a wonderfully endearing formula and one that makes 'It's Great To Be Alive' such a fulfilling record. Theirs is a sophisticated mash-up of styles, taking in indie, punk, country, folk, rock and even skiffle (we kid you not), but never sounding trite or over-complicated. The experimentation with instrumentation creates a pot pourri of sounds to satisfy even the most picky of palettes: there are cowbells, trombones, violins and even penny whistles in this cut-and-paste collage, which gives the album the sort of playful vibrancy that's made such disparate acts as Gogol Bordello and Modest Mouse so engaging.

There are shades of so many other contemporaries in Fake Problems' musical cooking pot too. They adopt the grandiose layers of The Arcade Fire, but simultaneously manage to be as ruff and ragged as Defiance, Ohio, with their brand of frayed country punk. Perhaps the most common comparison, however, is to anarcho-folk-punksters Against Me!, whose Tom Gabel owes more than a passing resemblance to Chris Farren (vocally, not physically, you understand.) Crucially, however, 'It's Great To Be Alive' - as you may have guessed from the title - is a far more celebratory effort than much of Against Me!'s work. Where the Gainesville five-piece are concerned with politics and social injustice, Fake Problems find their muse in joy, in eulogising the mundane.

The album certainly benefits from this proclivity for the upbeat: 'The Dream Team' has the most memorable chorus of the year and it's an absolute beauty to behold. 'I wanna be the American dream', sings Chris, before adding, 'but I need you right next to me if I'm ever gonna feel free.' The synonymising of the macrocosmic with the micro, the gargantuan outside world with the simple unit of two, captures the very essence of love, what it is to give yourself completely to another. The 'you and me' of the song is so glorious that you just can't help but assume the role of the singer's companion, no matter how inappropriate it may seem. There's much of this elsewhere too, such as in the simplistic '1,2,3,4' which has the same theme, demonstrating how love usurps all.

All of this is as catchy as hell too; for all it may seem a little cheesy at first, the two-step stomp of 'Diamond Rings' will be revolving around your frontal lobes for days. 'Don't Worry Baby' is even better, featuring some of the most absurd lyrics this side of a Spike Milligan compilation, and the most inspired set of 'la la la's since Bowling 4 Soup went 'gay.' For all this is excessively chirpy however, there are more sombre moments on the record. The last three tracks allow a potent melancholy to seep in and it buoys its impact: 'Too Cold to Hold', with its straightforward acoustic lilt, is particularly moving. There are other thematic excursions too. The band explore gang mentality on 'Tabernacle Song' and manage to capture the sort of lighters-aloft, arms-around-your-mates euphoria of their peers' best singalongs (the Molly's 'Alive', Murphys' 'Kiss Me, I'm Shitfaced', anything by The Living End etc.) There's even time for a bit of swing too: 'Alligator Assassinator' is just the Cherry Poppin' Daddies on acid. No, really. It is.

Sounding like the bastard love child of about a dozen of your favourite bands - Against Me!, Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly, even The Arcade Fire and Frank Turner at times - it's quite remarkable that Fake Problems have actually managed to create an album that so deftly delineates an identity of their own. 'It's Great To Be Alive' is a rapturous record, bursting with life and bristling with ingenuity. You just can't help but fall for its illustrious charms and in so doing, you'll probably end up feeling a whole heck of a lot better too. (8.5/10)