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Ratigan -- Fortune Metal

Within the first moments of Fortune Metal’s opening song, it’s obvious that Pavement is possibly the biggest influence on Ratigan’s music. The Providence, RI indie group, led by 20-year-old Patrick Higgins, share a nostalgia similar to that of most kids who grew up in the 1990s, and it is made evident in their lo-fi and low-key alternative rock. Higgins talk-sings his way through Cherry Blossom and the rest of the songs in a way that blends Gordon Gano, Stephen Malkmus, and John McCrea at its best, but sounds as if it was recorded in his sleep at its worst.

The fifteen songs of Fortune Metal range from the boisterous noise of Get a Load of THIS (Magic the Void) and the aptly named What the Fuck (Noise), to the instrumental explorations of Criteria, Dreaming of You, Waltz, and Love You. The band make it a point to add fits of clamor sporadically throughout.

One of the album’s highlights to play on repeat is French Kiss, a quirky and endearing song of seduction that you’ll wish someone wrote with you in mind. Higgins quips lines like “Unbutton my buttons and lay me down to die / Black mascara dripping from the circles in your eye”; The perfect make-out jam for the lusty indie pop couple.

Fortune Metal concludes its 42-minute journey with its most candid and gripping track, Chaos. Soft guitar and tambourine lead into introspective and emotionally hopeless lyrics. The song proceeds into ghostly wails echoing behind the repeated droning of “the emptiness always finds its way back in.”

The music Ratigan produces here is always understated and blissfully haphazard, but never dull. Unrefined and earnest, Fortune Metal proves to be an ambitious first full length for Ratigan.

--Sarah Ruggiero

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February 2012
Friendly People
Friendly People EP
mp3

Friendly People’s debut, self-titled 3-song EP gives a concise taste of a promising young Cambridge, MA-based band. Their jangly indie pop is peppered with hints of Americana, roots rock and folk with vocals that owe a debt to Neil Young. The EP’s clear highlight is its opening track—their namesake song—“Friendly People”. It’s a tremendous, positive track buoyed by a horn section in the bridge which lends a mariachi feel. “A Lot of Work To Do” brings out Harvest-era Neil Young, starting as a plaintive acoustic ditty which builds slowly into a passionate electric number. Closing track, “Branches”, follows the same acoustic-to-electric path. As the song builds, it introduces tribal rhythms that are reminiscent of 80s indie-punk legends, the Volcano Suns. Friendly People are scheduled to record their debut full-length in March. If the Friendly People EP is indicative of what we can expect from this young group’s next batch of tunes it will be a record to keep an eye on later in 2012.--George Dow
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