Direction to Be Desired

In Emmett Rogers Fightmaster’s debut album, they utilize a wide range of musical influences to find their voice as an artist. Tolerance is both retro and starkly modern, feminine and masculine, introspective and carefree. It is an impressive foray for Fightmaster, who is perhaps best known for their onscreen presence in television shows like Grey’s Anatomy. It is always commendable for a public figure to venture into a new medium of expressing their talents. Though these artistic journeys are not always well-received by the public, there is a case to be made that Fightmaster is in a solid position to build a following as a musician.

The album adopts many different moods throughout its short duration. “All or Nothing”, with its mixture of upbeat instrumentation and lovelorn lyrics, is obviously inspired by ‘80s pop, a la A Flock of Seagulls and The Human League. Only three tracks later, on “Versailles”, the project takes a turn, feeling more folkish and singer-songwriter-esque than anything. Both tracks are strong entries into the greater body of work, and they display Fightmaster’s artistic range. One could argue that the Ohio singer is simply serving themself up to multiple different subcultures of music fans. However, there is a critique to be made on Fightmaster’s consistency and voice. One might say that music, as a culture, has lost the art of a “concept album” or simply one with a coherent tone. Tolerance characterizes this struggle to a certain extent. It feels as though Fightmaster floundered to land on any artistic theme or distinct sound for a single album with a notably short runtime at thirty-three minutes.

The most disappointing song to be included on the album is, decidedly, “Glide.” Its pseudo sexy lyrics and disjointed song structure make for an unpleasant listening experience. The track fails to find a comfortable place among the rest of the list and is almost impossible to ignore when listening to the album from start to finish. However, “Glide” is not the downfall of Tolerance. There are several other tracks that are thoughtful, entertaining and easily listenable. These are all adjectives that could be used to describe the album as a whole — but Fightmaster has a long road of shaping their artistic identity ahead of them.