There's something about the nasally vocals of Neil Sabatino that just shouldn't work. It would be easy to dismiss them as irritating and grating, but for whatever reason - they're not. There's something oddly calm about his voice and there's an even stranger oddity to the calmness of his lyrics, no matter how discontent their subject matter.
With "Pretending Greatness Is Awaiting" (Reinforcement Records), Neil and his friends in Fairmont manage to pull off a ship of music that's refreshing in both its subtle looseness and its startling honesty. At times, the music wraps itself in quiet serenity before exploding into enough fuzzed out guitar to make an indie rock kid tremble with delight while other times, the acoustics carry the song to such a height, that everything else simply becomes a backdrop.
"Shooting Yourself In The Foot" is an excellent example of Sabatino's simplistic, yet infectiously talented songwriting as the guitar playing is simple chording before breaking into several catchy riffs while the drums remain minimalistic and in essence, are used to full effect in the process. "Escape Plan" carries a very folkish feel in the vein of The Violent Femmes with its frantic acoustic guitar runs and cleverly written lyrics. Sabatino even manages to pull off an enjoyable cover of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" which features background vocals on the chorus akin to that of a drunken bar room karaoke session while the acoustics replace the complex electronics of the original.
"Rebuilding Home" and "How Summer Tour Made Me An Atheist" both feature Neil's quiet vocals and a lone acoustic to great length and have a somewhat lo-fi, home recording quality to them. While something like this may be a turn off to many, it could be argued that this only helps add to the folkish quality that he was trying to achieve.
Fairmont has pulled off an excellent record that draws a thin line between indie rock innovation and folk introspection. With "Pretending Greatness Is Awaiting", they show that thought provoking and relevant music doesn't have to have all of the bells and whistles of flashy production and Berkeley trained music skill, rather, they show that thought provoking and relevant music can be made with simple emotion and the occasional reverb pedal thrown in for good measure.
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