There’s not a lot of flash about Ashfield Skyline, the sophomore album from Family Fold. It’s an album full of the kind of pleasant pop-rock music that most of us don’t pay too much attention to. It sounds nice enough, but without big vocals or edge we let it fade into the background. I must admit, I fell into that trap myself at first. I listened almost all the way through while I was working on other things, enjoying myself but deciding the album didn’t grab me enough to warrant a review. It actually took the final track “Greater Union” to really wake me up and force me to properly listen not just to this number but the rest of the record.
That song is still my favourite, a beautiful ballad with poetic lyrics and some of the most powerful vocals on Ashfield Skyline. But on that first half-listen missed how heartbreaking songs like “Crying in the Carwash” and “Brother’s Name,” about life without Family Fold’s singer-songwriter Paul Andrews’ late brother, are. I missed the humour in tracks like “Saturday Night, No Fever” and “Big Wedding.” I had so much fun listening to “Let Go” that I got up out of my desk chair and had a spontaneous boogie in my home office.
It’s fitting that the image of a heart graces the cover of Ashfield Skyline. These songs might fly under the radar, but together they form an album that has the power to move any listener that really taps into them. Something tells me that matters more to Family Fold than whether or not big media pays attention.
Ashfield Skyline is out now. Family Fold will officially launch the album at The Union Hotel in Newtown on November 25.
Image used with permission from Revolutions Per Minute