Spectreview: FCKR JR. – I’m Sorry Mom and Dad

-PURPLE-

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In the midst of all those late-90’s alternative embarrassments, bands like Built To Spill have remained influential to indie artists because theirs is a timeless approach: take what’s survived from the past and adapt it, ever so subtly, to your own sensibilities in a way that relies less on the day’s trends than on strong songcraft. Chicago upstarts FCKR JR. understand this, as their debut album, I’m Sorry Mom and Dad, rolls and tumbles with that familiar left-of-center feel, blending shoegaze textures and a sense of jocular self-awareness to what’s essentially an alternative record at heart. Alternative is hard to pull off properly in 2019 because it’s inherently serious music in an age of facetiousness and self-effacement, but FCKR JR. mostly steer clear of those pitfalls by playing off that seriousness in a winking fashion. There are commonplace subjects that are played at face-value, like the anti-hypocritical screeds of “Paying the Piper,” but when the topics turns personal on tracks like closer “I’m Write Dad” and “Next Best Friends” there’s enough overall biting wit where the album title comes across as a less a sadsack declarative than a knowing joke about participating in a underground band. Not to mention the music’s also super solid: at barely 20 minutes there’s almost no chaff, just energetic thorny workouts (“Gone”; “Hardcore Euchre”) and meat-and-potatoes songs with left turns bearing pleasantly aimless chord progressions (“The Pain and Sleep Department”; “5 Year Plan”). Throughout the record, the band plays tightly but not stiffly, with a slight looseness that adds a slacker component to the already dense mélange of familiar sounds. I’m Sorry Mom and Dad is a short, rewarding listen that gains its strength through creative songwriting and streamlined pacing, proven tools that are nonetheless difficult to nail down, and that alone makes this a worthwhile listen.

Recommended for hyping yourself up before band practice.