"Stuck On Nothing," Free Energy

[Deleted]

I think these guys are going to become my Phoenix of 2010. "Dream City" and "Something In Common" really caught my attention last year, but their debut is phenomenal. A little bit Cheap Trick, a little bit Weezer, a little bit Strokes, and a lot of 70's classic rock. Basically, the best album Jet never made. Produced by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy.

My favorites are "Free Energy," "Dream City," "Bang Pop," (!!) "Something In Common," "All I Know," "Dark Trance," and "Light Love."

[RedDragon]

A lot of bands that I like on that review: Phoenix, Weezer, JET, The Strokes, LCD. Ha, I'm downloading this.

[Deleted]

I really can't choose a favorite, but right now I can't stop playing "All I Know." It's probably the most Weezer of the bunch, and it hits so hard. What I love about this record is how all the guitar solos are just as addictive as the already catchy-as-f**k choruses.

Reviews from Stylus (first) and Consequence of Sound (second):

You're cruising down the freeway with the windows rolled down on a warm summer night, smoking a joint and heading to a house party with a few friends. What album is radiating through the speakers during your drive?

The answer is Free Energy's new album, Stuck on Nothing. With an indie/rock sound that reminds me of bands from the '70s, Free Energy is a combination of Thin Lizzy, Tom Petty, Foghat and Weezer.

After the break-up of the band Hockey Night, singer Paul Sprangers and guitarist Scott Wells moved to Philadelphia, Pa. and went on to create a newer and better version of '70s rock bands by creating Free Energy. The band was picked up by DFA Records and began touring the country last summer.

Stuck on Nothing, which was released March 9, is both relaxing and lively. It starts with the feel-good song "Free Energy," which makes you want to dance on your bed and sing into a hairbrush. With lyrics like "This is all we've got tonight/We are young and still alive/Now the time is on our side," it's hard not to want to sing and dance along.

The third song on the disc, "Bang Pop," sounds like it would be an addition to the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. It has a pop-like tone, but has guitar riffs like Foghat's "Slow Ride." Let me guess, you can't imagine a pop version of "Slow Ride?"

It may be difficult to compare the popular '70s band to a song that has lyrics of "Bang, pop, pop, when does the moment stop?/Bang, pop, pop, Oh way oh." I'll reassure you, though, they're not another Fall Out Boy.

"All I Know" and "Bad Stuff," the fourth and fifth tracks on the album, are less happy-go-lucky and bring a more mellow sound, which is comparable to Weezer's "Buddy Holly" or "Beverly Hills."

As if Free Energy couldn't get enough of Weezer and Foghat, their seventh song on Stuck on Nothing, "Young Hearts" has a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers-like melody.

The best song on the album is the eighth track called "Light Love." With a similar sound to the second song, "Dream City," it's a combination of a get-up-and-dance and sing-along-while-driving tune.

"Hey pretty eyes/Woah oh, keep your light on/Hey happy times/Woah oh, keep your light on/You can go where you want to go/People talk but they don't know/You can do what you want to do/What they say don't listen to" are the catchy lyrics that are easy to learn in one or two plays.

The disc finishes with "Hope Child" and "Wild Winds," which are both the slower and peaceful songs on the album. It doesn't drift into nothing though, as the final tune concludes the general feeling of the band and their new album.

"Maybe all we need just comes without any warning/Maybe the stars are guiding our lives/We can live this way forever/Lying together forgetting who we are" and ends with a two-minute repeat of the lines "Maybe the stars are guiding our lives/giving us hope."

The initial point of interest for Free Energy’s Stuck On Nothing is that LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy produced the Philadelphia band’s first full-length LP. Aside from that generally important if not superficial detail, the band has a sound that even without the hand of the dance-punk lord gently guiding it along is equal parts hard to categorize and one long, gleeful road trip down rock’s music last 30-some-odd years.

It’s abundantly clear with a lot of their song titles and their band name in general, they’re going for a much more ‘late 60s commune vibe (without being too hippie about it). That level of sheer positivity is abundantly clear throughout the album, especially in that each track maintains a joyous, upbeat swing. But they’re not total flower kids; the synth line in “Light Love” is the definition of finding a groove, albeit in the band’s own pace, and “Hope Child” breaks down and builds up in the weirdest ways imaginable, with the only constant being a transcendental chorus of voices. And a track like “Bang Pop” takes that singing to the Universe vibe, with each instrument informing the call back of the other, and forges it into a blazing pop gem.

Undoubtedly, you’ll hear comparisons to Thin Lizzy (specifically on the mellowed out jammer “Psychic Lightning”, the guitar dominated “Free Energy” and the bigger-than-life bass thump of “Bad Stuff”) and even The Strokes (as with the lonely ballad turned musical kaleidoscope that is “Wild Wind” and “Dark Trance”, the near-perfect Strokes copy that burns out with way more emotion then the NY lads could muster). And rightfully so, but they’re not ones to dwell; they take the music in their own direction, completely unafraid of being over the top or playing it right in line with their idols. The magic of Free Energy is they give you those nostalgic pings without making you feel like something’s being rehashed for the sake of unearthing those beloved musical memories.

Lyrically though, they kind of shine as well. Each of the songs is in the vein of a well-established genre, specifically of the boy meets girl-kind, and every wondrous yet painful feeling and experience that stems thereafter. However, they make it intelligent, insightful, and universally applicable, with lots of creative twists and outright confessionals, all combined with the ease of pure sugar-coated poetry. With a song like “All I Know”, the band highlights specifically downtrodden lyrics with strings and backward guitar, emphasizing the deep heartbreak that fills the entire song. On the other hand, “Dream City” stands tall as a beacon of pure saccharine, though with just as much depth: “When the stars are shining brighter/when your heart is beating lighter/when you love without desire/then you know who you are.”

It’d be easy to call this band a fan of too many genres — lots of ’70s/arena rock alongside some very shiny and well composed pop that’s been treated to a punk sensibility — but they’re so much more than that. For instance, they’re fans of guitar solos, unabashedly declaring their love for simplistic rock music that commands, at the very least, some enthused head nodding. But they also make little decisions that inform the listener of a much deeper musical worldview. Take the saxophone, for example, which appears on more than a couple of tracks. They’re unashamed to explore sounds most bands have avoided and those compositions break through the ambient noise and heavy synths of other acts to paint a colorful and energetic landscape of sheer, giddy fun.

And Pitchfork hasn't reviewed it yet, but here's their take on last year's "Best New Music"-labeled track "Dream City":

If James Murphy wants us to believe that he's an old man trapped in a young man's game, he's going to have to stop picking from the tree of life at some point. Signing Philly livewires Free Energy to DFA is not that step towards graceful maturity, and for that your coming summer months owe the codger a debt of gratitude. After hearing only "Dream City", a cut from the band's forthcoming debut, Stuck on Nothin', it would be unwise to ignore Murphy's commendation of something this unbridled and, in the spirit of things, totally rad. "Dream City" is a good-time 1970s rock rip of epic proportions, as promises of dancing downtown, cruising around, and getting "lost in the endless sound" weave in and out like the attention span of a drunk in the backseat. It's perfect mood music for a night that looses itself in the afterglow of the inevitable busting of the moontower kegger, leaving everyone a little high, a little bored, and completely enraptured with the endless possibility of youth. The handclaps, the na-na-nas, the maddening twinkle in the eyes-- they're all here, playing like subtle reminders to take note of these things before they pass, or at least until we get to hear the rest of Stuck on Nothin'.

[TotallyEnormousExtinctDinosaur]

I'm liking this so far. I'm getting a SoCal vibe from this but also some Franz Ferdinand vibes.

[One More Time]

they initially remind me of Jet. the music so far gives me a chill 70's SoCal vibe very chill and they sound like Weezer, Jet, & Franz Ferdinand rolled into one

[Deleted]

“Dark Trance”, the near-perfect Strokes copy that burns out with way more emotion then the NY lads could muster.

Dead f**king on.

[dperkins]

This isn't too bad. Its nothing terrible, but its nothing I feel like replaying again & again. But, this type of music isn't typically my thing.

[Deleted]

Pitchfork gave it an 8.1 . Here's another awesome blog review:

Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing
It’s a sign of the cold times that a witty, sardonic, effortlessly hooky power-pop record such as this one needs so much help to attract the least notice. It’s been endorsed (and produced) by James “LCD Soundsystem” Murphy. It’s been marveled over by people at Pitchfork. Lead single "Dream City" has been hyped to sh*t by every little blog and alt-weekly you can name. Drawing heavily on '70s glam-rock boogie and the classic American pop, the song was about as perfect a summer jam as one could hope for. Like a few other classic summer long-players, Stuck On Nothing, with every day between June 1 and August 31 you spend listening to it, says something good, bad, and written in stone about you.

On the surface, the group's unwavering optimism almost seems at odds with a genre often defined by its detached cool. Stuck On Nothing, however, is as smart as Elvis Costello when he knew he was past his prime but still in his element. When he could finally speak intelligently for the most dumb-assed of nerds. It’s that smart, melodic and bittersweet. I’m not sure Elvis himself had the luxury of this kind of self-knowledge, this ability to set effortlessly optimistic vocal melodies to deeply misanthropic lyrics.

No spurned-nerd anthem has ever been more clearly declared than “Bang Pop,” which starts with the chords from “Reeling in the Years,” but then goes straight into a f**king stomper, lamenting the moment when you first see a hot girl popping her gum. Sequenced toward the middle of the record, standout “All I Know” is so reminiscent of 90s alternative that it wouldn’t feel out of place on either Weezer's The Blue Album or Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The vocals initially evoke a Malkmusian distance, but by song’s end, detachment gives way to an impassioned emoting that succeeds by virtue of its disarming earnestness.

This is a fun summer record full of sugar highs, and just as bitter and conflicted as any fun summer record could be. There is still an art to misanthropy, and Free Energy has it down to a science.

[RedDragon]

I can definitely hear the influence of all the bands mentioned above. The song "Free Energy" it's very Weezer. It's a very summery album, I love it.

[RedDragon]

"Free Energy" and "Bang Pop" are my favorites. Are they releasing any single?

[Deleted]

Yeah, I think they're just trying to get buzz out first....they performed "Free Energy" on Letterman two weeks ago, and did a bunch of shows at SXSW.

[AFRO SAMURAI]

"Bang Pop" is really good. The rest may need to grow on me for a while.