The Fools' Confession
BY JASON GANTENBERG I February 18, 2010
Being a former denizen of the open mic circuit, I've watched a long line of singer/songwriters fumble through sad songs about lost love, loneliness, and spirituality — the Bob Dylan wannabes like me, the Jeff Mangum aficionados, the would-be ascendants to the folk and indie rock thrones of the twenty-first century. That line is endless and mostly unspectacular regardless of the few acts for which a level of respect (and sometimes fondness) is due. Most of the time, you go to watch a friend and then exit sheepishly after he/she is through with their set, but every now and then, the next act prompts you stick around and buy another beer. The Fools could very well be that band.
Their instrumentation is relatively sparse, headed mainly by Jen Tobin's straightforward guitar and Uchenna Bright's simple but calculated bass lines. Even songs that include some backing instruments are kept mild and aptly pitch and swell along with Tobin's voice, which is lithe and stays comfortably in the mid-range throughout Lost and Found (2010), though at times it is a bit difficult to understand all of the words. The resulting sound manages to be dramatic without straying into the hyperbole that no doubt proves tempting with the serious and intensely personal subject matter like that which comprises the album. That being said, there is some hyperbole present within the lyrics many of which center on lost love and dreamscape, but The Fools keep their songs short and to the point, and most of the sweeping metaphors wash over so quickly that there is little time to process them. (That is not to say the metaphors are necessarily clumsy or unappreciated; they aren't.) In this regard, the effect is quite positive and leaves the listener with an appropriate sense of melancholy and perhaps even some of the confusion that is so common during times of personal strife and peril. The real mistake would have been to stray into balladry, a form in which The Fools might very well succeed but that would sacrifice the poignancy and directness with which they approach songwriting.
I don't mean to insinuate that Lost and Found is a downer. For the most part, it is not — though it does showcase a level of somberness that would probably make it a decent break-up album. The album primarily manages to be serene and honest. It manages to maintain a purity of emotion and avoids being saccharine or insulting to the audience, traits that are, unfortunately, all too common when the impetus to injudiciously mangle heartstrings is strong and difficult to resist.
Most of these songs ache, and they do so without the necessity of a line-reading. One gets the sense of having listened not to a performance but to a confessional.
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