by Ed Biggs

Brighton-based duo Fear Of Men quietly released one of the better British indie debuts in recent years back in 2014. Characterised by pastel-shaded melodies and crisp, stark drumlines, it was lead singer Jessica Weiss who stole the show, with her gothic, breathy vocals dwelling in that contrast between the sunny and gloomy on Loom. A little over two years later comes Fall Forever, a subtly different but steady follow-up that expands tentatively on that debut – even sharing an almost identical front cover, everything about it seems designed to assure the listener that it’s very much the same band. However, it’s also the sound of an artfully minimalistic group shrinking the scope of their music even further – a stratagem that doesn’t pay off as regularly.

Right from the sepulchral, devotional intro of ‘Vesta’, where Weiss sings with closed eyes “I want to build a world with you / you’re the one I want”, Fall Forever is a noticeably more monochrome, darker effort than its predecessor. Daniel Felvey’s guitar is dialled back to a consistent, unintrusive miasma that throws the skeletal, inventive drum machine patterns and his bandmate’s vocals into sharp contrast. The focus is very much on Weiss throughout, from the skittering, backwards-drumming of ‘Undine’ to the rather more conventionally structured ‘Sane’, as Fear Of Men perform ten pieces of abstract yet studiously posed portraits of heartbreak and anguish, where the drama is neatly counterbalanced by the restraint of Weiss’s delivery. The chillout room vibe of ‘Until You’ and the deeper, much more textured ‘Trauma’ with Felvey’s crunchy guitars stepping out of the shadows – also the album’s highlight – serve to break up the pace.

The more traditional dynamics of Loom made it a comparatively easy listen – this time, by stripping out the well-defined guitar lines and leaving behind only shimmering, reverberating mists of sound, the band has pushed the percussion to the front of the mix and meant that Weiss’s voice has to do a lot more of the heavy lifting. While Fear Of Men must get credit for doing something a bit different for their second album, telescoping in on one facet of their existing, this has made Fall Forever a more challenging experience: one that produces a handful of great singular moments – ‘Trauma’ being the very best of these – but coming across as slightly monotonous over a full-length album, even if it’s only 31 minutes long. (6/10)

Listen to Fall Forever here via Spotify, and tell us what you think below!