Home Artist links Label link
For Absent Friends - Decade
| Artist: | For Absent Friends |
| Title: | Decade |
| Label: | Red Sea Records RED 3004 |
| Length(s): | 50+51 minutes |
| Year(s) of release: | 1998 |
| Month of review: | 01/1999 |
Line up
Rene Bacchus - bass, backing vocals
Peter de Jong - keyboards
Hans van Lint - vocals
Edwin Roes - guitar
Alex Toonen - vocals
Edwin Wernke - drums
Tracks
Disc 1:
| 1) | The One | 4.14
|
| 2) | Downtown | 3.32
|
| 3) | Boy | 6.43
|
| 4) | Father | 7.29
|
| 5) | Attitude | 5.10
|
| 6) | The Stone | 8.45
|
| 7) | Passing Days | 5.22
|
| 8) | The Bald, The Fat And The Ugly | 4.29
|
| 9) | Moving On | 4.37
|
Disc 2:
| 1) | Higher Level | 4.00
|
| 2) | Into Love | 5.39
|
| 3) | Different Faces | 2.20
|
| 4) | Never Ending Rain | 4.32
|
| 5) | Running Scared | 3.53
|
| 6) | Faf | 4.59
|
| 7) | Each And Every Day | 7.38
|
| 8) | Dreamer | 4.58
|
| 9) | Nights | 7.31
|
| 10) | Fight '98 | 5.46
|
Summary
Celebrating their 10th anniversary the Dutch neo-progressive/melodic rock
band For Absent Friends decided to release a double compilation disc
on which three songs are featured with their new singer Van Lint,
including a remake of The Fight. The albums are not filled to the brim with
music (why haven't they added more for instance all the music on the first
minialbum that should be practically unobtainable by now?), but as they will
say, quite rightly so in fact, everybody will always have something to
complain.
The music
The One is the first track and also the first one to feature the new singer
Hans van Lint. His voice is quite good, somewhere close to Marathon's singer
Erik ten Bos. The song is quite typical for FAF. Not overly complex or
energetic, but a mid-tempo melodic track. The only track from FAF Out Of HAL
is Downtown. This is quite a poppy track, while the duo Boy and Father
from their much acclaimed Tintinnabulation are among the best things
they have ever done. Varied melodic rock tracks with an important role
for the fingerquick Roes, but with Father being the more impressive of the
two compositions. Attitude is a track that I have heard numerous time.
An up-tempo track which is probably the reason why I do not like it that
much, but partly this is also from the not so succesful lyrics. The best song
of the first mini album is The Stone. I would have hoped that they put the
entire mini album on this compilation since it must be quite difficult to
find (or added their rendition of La Villa Strangiato). The Stone brings
back old memories of watching them on Queen's Day playing live in Rotterdam.
Actually, For Absent Friends have been one of the first obscure prog bands
I was into back in 1990. Later on I also became involved with bands like
Magma, National Health and Henry Cow to name but a few, but as often happens
with music that comes from your youth: you tend to keep this soft spot.
They were also one of the first prog bands I knew who just sang about love
and relationships and not about something like Harold The Barrel or
Siberian Kathru's. I like to think there's more than nostalgia here and I do
still think this is a very good song, not very complex compared to much
progressive otherwise available but carrying enough emotion and melody to
be interesting. I'm not that familiar with Running In Circles as an album.
Passing Days is quite a nice relatively quiet track with acoustic guitar, but
also violin and on the whole plenty of variation. The Bald, The Fat And
The Ugly contains even more variation moving between acoustic jazzrock
and melodic rock. Moving On is a track that is always played as the last track
at any concert. I'm not very fond of it myself, being too poppy for my tastes.
Disc Two opens with a new song Higher Level. A not particularly striking song,
but certainly not a bad one either. After Into Love is better I think, even
though it comes from their most commercial album. The next two belong together:
Different Faces and Never Ending Rain from Both Worlds. One omission on this
album is the title track of the latter, being one of the bands most
accomplished tracks. Running Scared is an up-tempo song, with a jazzy
intermezzo, while the ballad Faf is an oldie, also present on the very first
demo's of the band. I like the original version better, this one is a little
too slick. The third track from Tintinnabulation is Each And Every Day,
a bit of a singalong track, but still containing a nice instrumental
intermezzo. Dreamer is also an oldie from the early tapes, but you could
also find it on Both Worlds. Like the title indicates, a dreamy track and
quite untypical for the band. Nights is the last compiled track coming
from Running In Circles. The song opens with percussive piano. This longish
track is a rather somber one, with varied injections by the guitar and
keyboards, sounding in a way somewhat playful. Later on female vocals join
the stage.
The last track is the third version of The Fight. The first one was on
Running In Circles, a great acoustic version on FAF Out Of HAL and now this
new version sung by the new singer. The song opens subdued with somber, low
vocals (van Lint has this tear in his voice), but becomes thoroughly bombastic
and majestic towards the end. What is so striking about this song is that
the melody of the verse and the chorus are very different, but both beautiful,
that hardly happens in any song (of this kind). A very emotional rendition,
but the thing is: I think it could even be done better.
Conclusion
After getting involved with more "progressive" or one might say more complex
music, you might think I'm that much into this kind of melodic rock (as the
band members themselves see it) anymore, but I have to admit, that many
of the songs still stand as such. The music is not adventurous that is
true, but FAF does have a good sense of melody and composition. So, might
you be interested in melodic rock, besides (standard) progressive rock, this
band is worth a try and since this album is now available and should
serve as a good introduction, it is a good place to start.
Happy birthday.
© Jurriaan Hage