Fair To Midland - Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grape

[pen]

Second single from Fables From A Mayfly goes for adds on October 1st, and honestly I think this is a mistake. I've fallen in love with all of the band's songs, but this is one of my least favorites, and I think "Kyla Cries Cologne", "The Wife, The Kids, And The White Picket Fence", and "A Wolf Descends Upon The Spanish Sahara" are better choices by far. Still, we'll see if this follows in the footsteps of "Manatee".

[jvandyck87]

Yeah, I actually saw them open for Chevelle two weeks ago. FTM stole the show from Chevelle in my opinion but Chevelle kicked plenty of ass themselves. FTM was pretty much on the level of Sevendust in terms of their energy and just overall awesomeness live, which is about as good as you can get. Anyhow, after the show, the guys stuck around so I got to meet them and talk to them for an hour. One of the questions I asked them about was which song would be their next single, and when they said they were leaning towards this, I was like "WHAT!?" And they agreed with me. Apparently they wanted to release either "Walls Of Jehrico" or "Kyla Cries Cologne" and were surprised when their label strongly recommended that they release this. They said that they "hope the label knows something we don't" and are releasing it accordingly apparently as it now has an add date. Unlike Penance, I really like this song, but then again this is my choice for album of the year, and I like every song. I also agree that this is not one of the few strongest. "Walls Of Jehrico" has the best chorus. "Kyla Cries Cologne" has the most in common with Dance of the Manatee, "The Wife, The Kids, And the White Picket Fence" has the best shot at getting them some spins at alternative, and I think "April Fools And Eggman" is the type of song that if it caught on would have tremendous staying power.

That being said, this album is nearly flawless, and I don't see any song performing all that much better than any other because they're consistently good. Moreover, these songs will for the most part appeal to the same people. I think a violin intro could make things more interesting at active rock radio as "Tall Tales" offers us. Honestly I, like the band themselves, hope that the label knows something that the band, me, and Penance don't and this song does really well, because they provide a really refreshing flavor to the somewhat homogeneous format that is active rock.

[reception]

mms://66.186.0.101/allaccess/fairtall.wma