Ginger Wildheart – The Year of the Fanclub

Power Pop 

The first thing that comes to mind when you listen to the first two tracks on Ginger Wildheart’s The Year of the Fanclub is that this kinda sounds like The Darkness without the vocal histrionics. “Down the Dip” sounds like that early-oughts paean to 80’s rock crossed with Fountains of Wayne. It’s not the weirdest of marriages. Fountains of Wayne were inspired by 60’s and 70’s power-pop in the vein of Big Star and the Kinks, two bands that exist within the pantheon of glam influencers. The opener of 3rd track “El Mundo” even harkens to an over-compressed and modernized outtake of a Muswell Hillbillies-era Kinks track.

Ultimately, this struggle is central to the album. They’re not sure if they want to follow one artsier path (the Kinks to Marc Bolan to to Big Star to Fountains of Wayne) or the more stadium rock friendly path (The Kinks to Bolan to Slade to Quiet Riot to the Darkness). Ultimately, there’s not enough lyrical cunning or authenticity to compete with other glam rockers that have emerged from the Isles (think Manic Street Preacher, Spiritualized). They tarry too much into the territory of Slade and Gary Glitter—the production is poppy and less power-poppy than pop punk. The hooks are gigantic but they aren’t sharp enough to justify the bombast or overlook the histrionics. There’s not enough substance to sink your teeth into. Even tracks like “The Pendine Incident” which attempt to stray to the pub rock strains of Billy Bragg and Dr. Feelgood just sort of sound like outtakes from the Green Day acoustic tracks with a slight brogue.

Look, pop doesn’t need to be profound all the time. And not everyone is going to be Brian Wilson or Van Morrison or Alex Chilton & Chris Bell. And the band and the record are both pleasant. The Year of the Fanclub isn’t a dumpster fire. But at least a dumpster fire would be provocative instead of a monument to radio rock—and not even a golden age, but the 80’s. If you were a fan of The Darkness, Ginger Wildheart are better because their histrionics are more in check. But at least those histrionics connote some sort of risk. Maybe The Darkness fail, but they do it with gusto rather than complacency.