Fenech Soler attempt to inject some tropical sunshine into the winter months

Second album from Northampton electro pop four piece doesn’t quite accomplish its promise.

Fenech-Soler - Rituals

Out Now 6/10

Hailing from Northampton, electro pop four piece Fenech-Soler (Ross Duffy, Ben Duffy, Daniel Fenech-Soler and Andrew Lindsay) return with their second album. Their debut self titled album arrived back in 2010, riding on the wave of the likes of Friendly Fires and Delphic, they found moderate success with their version of the then popular and unavoidable dance inflicted summery indie pop, three years later they are back with lead singer Ben Duffy now completely cancer free this album still carries the same summery vibe. In 2011 Ben Duffy was diagnosed with cancer, luckily it was treated early, no doubt this monumentally life changing event would have had some effect  on this album, tracks like
Youth, In Our Blood and
Last Forever evoke a sense of a rebirth, or a renewed joie de vivre. There’s not one moment on
Rituals that feels melancholic or downhearted, unfortunately though for all its renewed energy there is very little that stands out amongst the shimmering tropical electronic. It is this overpowering overload of stingy synth ecstasy that is also its downfall, it is almost so synth inflicted there’s very little else that can be heard and after a few tracks it falls into the disappointing category of being too samey. Very much like the second album from The Naked and Famous, Fenech-Solar are seemingly stuck in a rut of electro pop, while the songs are light and breezy there’s not much substance and their sound hasn’t really evolved from the first album. Where the likes of Bastille and Kodaline have moved things up a up a notch in the indie/pop crossover market and managed to latch onto the public consciousness by combining this brand of joyful synth pop through lyrics and catchy emotive indie pop, Fenech-Soler are just under the radar, not quite exciting or different enough to set them aside. This sound, particularly arriving as it did at the end of the summer feels more dated than it should do, even more telling is when pioneers of this synth pop sound Cut Copy have moved on.
www.fenechsoler.co.uk

COMMENTS

• Emily Kyne
  Been waiting so long for a follow up to this!