Review: Fair to Midland's Fables From A Mayfly

Fair to Midland is a progressive rock band in a contemporary sense, and their third album Fables From A Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True is a progressive rock album. In a contemporary sense. Think of the difference between 80’s rock, which was nothing but cocaine, sex, and guitar solos compared to 2000’s rock’s heavier emphasis on chugging riffs and its close relationship to pop. Now do the same conversion, applied to the first spattering of prog rock acts, and you’ll have a sense of what’s to come in this album. So, instead of an eight-part, fifty five minute song that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, we have a fairly standard set of eleven four-minute songs that make a little sense.

I’m not very convinced that ‘progressive’ is the best term for this album, though. There’s a lot of rock, but 95% of the time, there’s nothing but guitars, vocals, drums, and a few keyboards hanging out in the background. The lyrics are unconventional, yes. Some of the ways the instruments are arranged are unconventional, yes. One song ends on a 90-second carnival themed waltz, which is more unannounced than practical because it interrupts a very strong series of songs for no reason.

So that’s some of the bad, but what about the good? Well for one, nearly every moment of every song on this album is solid. Not outstanding, not mind-blowing, but solid, competent, well-executed rock music minimum. Which means it can only get better from there, right? Well, it does.

The vocalist, Darroh Sudderth, has an impressive range, and even more impressively, the ability to control his voice all across it. The heavier, shoutier moments are a bit forced and phlegmy, and the highest, shrillest moments sound strained and lack the fullness he otherwise has, but for the majority, this guy makes the band. He sings like a rusty, handmade violin in Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes, bringing a truly creepy, thinner-than-air vibrato that works perfectly with the washed out buzzing guitar counterpoint. Another great moment is a majority of A Wolf Descends.

The rest of the band is just as solid as the vocals, but nothing rises above the clamor quite like Darroh’s graveyard bellowing. Guitars are heavy and the bass and drums are forceful, but in every case, each instrument stays safely in its arranged space, nobody sticking his head out, no explosive shredding, but maybe some beepy boopy keyboard ambience here and there.

All told, Fables is a strong album. It’s arranged, though. Constructed, highly deliberate. All throughout, the step-by-step march of the music carries you from one track to the next, no improv here. Which is fine, it’s a very classical, baroque vibe, which I think is kinda cool. Just know that, before diving headfirst into the album, and you won’t be disappointed.