This is not your parents' album.
From its opening measures, this action-movie of an album rocks with the veracity of a live performance. In the classic tradition of three-piece bands, Fono is in-your-face power rock, developed out of performances before a live audience, with all the ensuing strengths and weaknesses.
GoesAroundComesAround, for all its loud reveling (and this album should definitely be played loud), takes some getting used to. Early listens reminded me of the seminal PFR rocker Great Lengths, but it lacks PFR's melodic playfulness, musical explorations, and lyrical strength.
As the album grows on the listener, the overwhelmingly direct simplicity of the music is both its forte and its fault. 'Collide' kicks off the album's potent head-banging fury, but by 'Round and Round' all you are left with is a banging head. 'Fade Away' is an album standout that could hold its own with any of the alt-rock songs currently dominating the radio airwaves. Most of the album, though, fades away into enjoyable but generally indistinguishable guitar riffs and cymbal crashes.
While fun for a moshing mob of teenagers, there is little in this album to keep the listener interested. The lyrics are disjointed strings of cryptic five-word catch phrases strung end to end for four minutes. Each chorus consists of the song's title sung exactly four times, followed by another verse or short bridge, and (voila!) back to the chorus. The music is well produced, and the band members are talented musicians, but the album feels like a 12-song concert without all the crowd noise.
If your idea of Christian music is that it should provide a viable alternative to secular radio, then this is an album to distribute at youth group events. Fono will likely make quite an impression on the summer music festivals, and GoesAroundComesAround should get plenty of raucously loud play in the quarantined rooms of high schoolers throughout the US and UK. Have fun with this one, but don't expect too much.
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2000Reviewed by Bert GanglThe Fono narrative over the past five years could be broadly categorized as an alternation between daunting achievement and unlikely obstacles. After finding moderate success in the European pub and club circuit with his former band, singer Del Currie voluntarily detached himself from the music scene for a year. After his sabbatical, Currie teamed up with friend Ian Crawford and churchmate Andy…HM Magazine #79Reviewed by Amanda NelsonWhere has this band been all my life? What a great sound! To misquote my favorite film, Christmas Vacation, "If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I couldn't be more excited than I am right now." These guys have a modern, kind of Beatles sound, and the lead singer Del Currie sounds a lot like Sting. This album starts off with a bang. The first song, "Collide," is very cool. The…Bandoppler 1999Reviewed by Sucré MusiqueWith as many words as this review could hold, at least half would be adjectives. It's tempting to use the word, "smart." And undoubtedly the term "pop-hooks" will surface. Maybe, even the expression "sassy," would appropriately describe the high-energy rock music that Fono embraces. It would be hard to round out this review without using the cliche' term "Brit-rock." Then again, they are British.…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Josh SpencerA review for this album doesn't need to be long. GoesAroundComesAround is probably the best radio-ready alternative rock album by Christians ever, no contest. Almost every song could rule the charts if given the chance. These Brits have taken all the post-grunge pop tricks and tools and have fashioned a superbly solid, catchy, sonically-pleasing collection of songs with quality lyrics that avoid…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Steven S. BaldwinA colossal sound, some spiffy production techniques, vigorous vocals, and a few well-played chords can get you pretty far in the music biz. Although Fono offers pretty standard stuff for nineties modern rock, they transcend the sameness of their alternative peers a smidge. So what if the vocalist sounds like Sting (and others) at times, that the riffs are often ripped from the Foo Fighters'…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by James StewartIt's been over a year since Fono's debut first landed in the CD players of UK-based fans. In that time they've been shunted between US labels and had time to do a little more work on the album. So it is that this re-release (to the UK market) of GoesAroundComesAround sees the final track of the original, "All Falls Down," removed, the addition of three new tracks, and the album re-organized. This…The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Corey WeltonFono's GoesAroundComesAround is simply one of the most surprising albums I've ever come across in Christian rock. Opening with "Collide," the first thirty seconds might make one think they've bought an experimental electronic album. This is not the case, but it makes a good transition into what turns out to be an excellent fast-paced opener for the album. The band churns out nine more wonderfully…The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by James StewartIn 1996 an unknown independent band received their first booking. They were asked to support Bon Jovi before 60,000 people. That band was Seven, now known as Fono, and for their second album they have decided to sign with a Christian label while keeping up their links with mainstream clubs in the UK. I must admit that having loved the raw sound of Seven's album, my approach to this more produced…Similar sounding releases
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