Fighting Fiction
Photo: Toni Roe link
A Lesser Of Two Evils - Fighting Fiction EP Review
EP Review
'A Lesser Of Two Evils' is the debut EP from Bristol based four-piece Fighting Fiction. I think it's safe to say that none of their tunes will be gracing a party political broadcast by the BNP any time soon. Whilst their social conscience, attitudes and sympathies may be laudable they have a rather naive adolescent quality about them. It's like Red Wedge for the late noughties, but with nothing new to say, or a new way to say it. It's New Model Army without the grit, or Billy Bragg minus the wit.
A plague on both your houses
and to your illicit deals,
A new forward way of thinking,
We're claiming back democracy,
Raise your flag and fly your colours,
Conform to one option,
Red and blue both look the same,
Choose what you disagree with less.
To some degree it's like they've set themselves up to be shot down, the cover speaks of 'hook lines catchier than herpes at a Skins after show party'...lovely, and after a couple of listens I'm not quite sure which one is the least appealing, there are as we speak no clinics set up to deal with Fighting Fiction. The vocals and attitude are very Sham 69, complete with sing-a-long choruses, 'We Will Rock You' hands aloft hand claps on 'You Mean The World To Me' and even a Big Country guitar riff on 'Camera Phones And Choruses'. Lead singer Jacob at one point in the proceedings even faces facts and comes clean... 'It seems to me that every single word I write today is just one big cliché.'
Their hearts are clearly in the right place, but that doesn't mean you have to be forgiving towards the music if it's not good enough. There are glimpses of light, as with the opening Ska laden bars of the title track from the EP. The band themselves want to deliver "brooding reggae guitar hooks of 'London Calling' era Clash." There is plenty of energy, and clearly a passion in their performance, but whilst their "socially aware lyrics" may get them some student support, I fear they will need a whole lot more than that to venture much further forward.
