Perhaps it could be just four years of familiarity with Fiction Plane. My first introduction to them being live and knowing in advance the genealogy that might have helped me like this right from the first play. That notwithstanding this album still stands up well after multiple playings and somehow I wish the band could get out the shadow of Sting and The Police. I am at a loss to explain their continuing obscurity and semi-cult status otherwise. It's probably a reflection of who's running the music industry these days, this band seems to grow more by word of mouth and the occasional exposure to someone going to see Sting and The Police. Certainly it is more in the genre of 80's and 90's rock (when radio play was actually enjoyable and the acts worth seeing) than alt indie and everything in popular music that's new for the third time or beaten like a dead horse. Certainly papa's genes show through more in the vocals of Joe than ever, but Left Side is definitely a keeper with nary a clunker and several really rather good tracks. It is a clear advance for the band but is still just a tick below "Everything ..." to me. I guess that's really not faint praise, either. It's a lie, Two sisters and Cold Water Symmetry to me seem tightest and best done. They are quick examples of the diversity seen in the music with Sisters and Symmetry coming out as my favorites. The Reggae influence that the Police brought to mainstream music back when comes out more with the phrasings, rhythms and syncopations so it's specious to deny some continuity father to son. It is however very welcome, but very critically said the more that you like the early Police the more this will appeal to you. Again, I don't consider that a knock because it only suggests, not defines the band. In the end it still comes down to talent and that came through in his musical genes as well as the voice. This is a worthwhile album and a band worth following in ocean of mostly just awful new music out there.
Fiction Plane - Left Side of the Brain [2007]
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