Fono

Item: Goesaroundcomesaround
Author: Bert Gangl

Goesaroundcomesaround

(1998)

Reviewed by Bert Gangl

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Reunion Records / KMG RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

britpop modern rock post-grunge power pop

The Fono narrative over the past five years could be broadly categorized as an alternation between daunting achievement and unlikely obstacles. After finding moderate success in the European pub and club circuit with his former band, singer Del Currie voluntarily detached himself from the music scene for a year. After his sabbatical, Currie teamed up with friend Ian Crawford and churchmate Andy Ridley to form Fono (then known as Seven) and record an independent album which gained little attention. Undiscouraged, the trio entered and won a music competition which netted them an opening slot for Bon Jovi before 50,000 fans at England's Milton Keynes outdoor arena in July of 1996. The band signed with Zomba Music and began recording their major-label debut album in England under producer Adi Winman (London Suede, Jamiroquai), who did work on the group's earlier demos. goesaroundcomesaround released in Europe in the fall of 1998 but, due to corporate restructuring at Zomba, the band was left as free agents and the album wasn't released in the US. However, in early 1999, members of Nashville's KMG Records signed the group after seeing their live show in the UK and released the US version of goesaroundcomesaround in August of that year.

The music on the US debut builds its foundation on the now ubiquitous, energetic post-grunge of groups like Bush and Collective Soul, adding equal parts of Stone Temple Pilots' imposing arena rock styling, the Alarm's passionate vocal delivery and the Goo Goo Dolls' penchant for hook and melody. While such a combination of parts is certainly familiar enough, the way in which these elements are played against one another is both inventive and engaging. The melody lines, which are usually delivered at an enthusiastically brisk pace, employ an unusual combination of drone and lilt that instills the songs with an extremely buoyant and infectious quality. The vocals, on the other hand, are delivered with a graceful, almost restrained, precision that works, oddly enough, to highlight rather than offset the intense musical backdrop. And the highly regular rhythms and nursery rhyme-like melodies that pervade the album give songs like "Round and Round" and "Pretty You" a pleasantly curious sense of familiarity, even at first listen.

As striking as the music on goesaroundcomesaround is, the lyrical portion is perhaps even more notable. The wording of "Pretty You" (If I do I do it for myself/ If I fail then I blame no one else/ Oh pretty you/ Pretty you/ Pretty you), while ostensibly simple, employs a sharp sense of parallelism and repetition that fits flawlessly within the album's highly metric musical construction. The semi-obscure, REMesque "Pusherman," (I touched the sun, it burned my hand/ I touched the moon to cool it down/ I pushed the plunger one last time) conveys its premise by way of broad impression rather than direct statement, subtly enticing the listener towards a more careful examination of the song's lyrics. And the phraseology on the beautiful anthem "Splendid" (So the day begins completely/ Nighttime fades away discretely/ Sunlight from your eyes/ Drowns the darkness from the skies) is quite simply pure, well-written poetry.

While the preponderance of goesaroundcomesaround contains notable musicianship and songwriting, the album does have its missteps. The language on "Drift Away" (We rise and we fall/ We stand one and all/ We reach for the skies/ In your eyes) is both overreaching and cliche'd. And, the mid-tempo "Alcatraz," which resorts to the overused comparison of emotional distress to imprisonment, is particularly listless, especially in light of the verve and wit that pervade the bulk of the rest of the release. Such lapses, though, are decidedly few and even the weaker material is arguably on par with the lion's share of alternative pop/rock now being released. All said, the distinctive and well-crafted goesaroundcomesaround stands as one of the more impressive albums in recent memory and, indeed, an imposing entry into the elite catalog of essential Christian rock music.

4.5 tocks