Fanfarlo: Let's Go Extinct

London-based pop music collective Fanfarlo return with their third album, Let’s Go Extinct, and not a moment too soon. There aren’t many bands that can combine the ambitions of progressive rock storytelling with the kind of hook-friendly accessibility demanded by today’s oft-distracted music listener – at least there are few who can without sounded either pretentious or way out of their element (to me, they resemble a very European Okkervil River). Fanfarlo do it with ease, and the folky elements blend nicely with the contemporary production sounds on all of their releases, but maybe best yet on this new record.

Now a five-piece, the band stretch out nicely here, such as on “Cell Song” (with its hints of Robert Plant’s “Big Log) or the album’s closer, the title cut, “Let’s Go Extinct.” Others throb with New Wave quirkiness, such as “A Distance,” which betrays the sound of 80s NYC with an Arthur Russell minimalist disco-vibe married to a David Byrne-esque vocal (and a nice retro sax tag to boot!). All in all, it is a great record to go exploring in, with themes that express a wide scope, from cellular beginnings to extinct futures.

-ERIC J. LAWRENCE

Track List:

1. Life in the Sky

2. Cell Song

3. Myth of Myself (A Ruse to Exploit Our Weaknesses)

4. A Distance

5. We're the Future

6. Landlocked

7. Painting with Life

8. The Grey and Gold

9. The Beginning and the End

10. Let's Go Extinct

Photo courtesy of the artist