16 Feb 2024 // A review by Catherine Bullock
A perfect introduction, Acrylic Monday is a lyrical, mostly instrumental beginning to a killer new album, The Everything Under Your Feet by Fool of Stars. The opening song showcases each part of the band, the lyrical guitar, sparkling drums and synthesisers, and a taste of the raw vocals yet to come on the album. Coming up next was my personal favourite of the album, Sol 436. The tone of the vocals and the clever harmonies on this song, but also the rest of the album, particularly remind me of The Beths, except with the added depth of an earworm synth melody.

Motheater, sits as the fourth song in the tracklist, and it is no wonder it was chosen as the lead single. The melody is infectious, and the upbeat song leads you into a slowed down, more melancholy ending. It leads perfectly into a more slowed down song, Song 7, which creates the opposite effect as it bursts into a rock ballad towards the end.

For future releases I would love to hear the band experiment with more raw vocals, I feel it was almost unlocked on Motheater, but not quite. I would’ve loved to hear maybe some screaming even in the background as the vocalist sang ‘get out of my house!’ I adore the lyrics on the track, particularly the line, “the right person to say the wrong thing to.”

The title track is equally as broad. The Everything Under Your Feet is a slow tempo, massive sounding ballad, lush with dynamic melodies in the synth, guitar, and vocals. Once again balancing a more upbeat song with more slow, melancholic periods, this song and the entire album is a wonderful showcase of pacing in music and keeping an audience’s attention without relying solely on the vocalist.

I really appreciate the range shown in this album. It is cohesive, and showcases an incredible range in tempo, musical genre, and emotion. Overall, this album is a total banger, and all I’m left wanting is more.

Fool of Stars are a synth-rock/shoegaze outfit based in Otepoti, New Zealand. Consisting of Olive Ward on vocals and guitar, Jacob Smith on organ/bass, and Max White on drums, the group fuses the textural paintings of shoegaze with the instantly n appealing melodic hooks of dream pop. These melodic hooks take the form of towering synth lines and captivating vocals that tie the sprawling guitar arrangements and propulsive drum grooves into a dense, evocative wall of sound. Going forward as a band, they hope to be able to create the music they feel passionate about and get it into the hands of like-minded listeners in Aotearoa and elsewhere.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Fool of Stars

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