The Fratellis’ ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ — review
Today, Scottish indie rock band The Fratellis, who are front man Jon Fratelli, bassist Barry Fratelli and drummer Mince Fratelli, released their fifth studio album ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ (via Cooking Vinyl), a follow-up to their 2015 album ‘Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied’. In the last few years, the band seem to have been gradually moving away from the fast-paced, high energy indie rock sound heard on their previous albums ‘Costello Music’ and ‘Here We Stand’ in favour of a calmer, milder sound and ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ continues down this path. This isn’t a bad thing in any way, however, as ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ has successfully presented itself as The Fratellis best album to date.
From start to finish, ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ is incredibly enjoyable. The album’s tracklist is made up of 12 songs that all manage to sound different and explorative, but are still cohesive. ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ is an incredibly well constructed album. Opener ‘Stand Up Tragedy’ kicks off the album with a punchy earworm guitar riff which immediately grabs the listener’s attention; a hold which is only tightened when frontman Jon Fratelli brings in his joyously melodic vocals. Jon’s melodic vocals are a recurring high point of this album, probably because as The Fratellis have grown and matured, there’s less reliance on distortion and shouty vocals in their music. A great testament to this is track 3, ‘Sugartown’. ‘Sugartown’ is a sugary sweet piece of indie pop, which again sees off the distorted guitars in favour of pure melody. ‘The Next Time We Wed’ is possibly the furthest the band have ventured out of the indie rock genre, creating a disco-flavoured, groovy, dance-worthy banger featuring funky guitars and a mix of call and response and falsetto vocals. The glaring high point on this album is track 7, ‘Laughing Gas’, which is an incredibly epic piece of music that manages to surround itself in its own particular atmosphere. There’s no other song on the album that sounds like ‘Laughing Gas’, which itself sounds like a musically backed piece of poetry. ‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ also sees The Fratellis longest song, the 6:56 minute long ‘I Am That’, which sees the band confidently tackle psychedlic influences and somehow manages not to get boring at all.
‘In Your Own Sweet Time’ is The Fratellis best album. A swaggering safari of genre exploration and general, good old fashioned fun. Streaming today on all major streaming platforms, as well as being available to purchase on CD and vinyl, there’s no excuse not to go and spend 49 minutes of your day listening to this great album.
Read our interview with Jon Fratelli by clicking here.
Catch The Fratellis on tour throughout March supporting the album! Dates below:
