Review Summary: This pop/rock album won't make you sick -- but it won't make you well, either.
The Fold’s second album for Tooth & Nail Records,
Secrets Keep You Sick, is a lot like their first,
This Too Shall Pass: there is nothing on either disc that anyone could find offensive, both albums are agreeable to the senses, and the guys in the band probably rank somewhere between Mother Theresa and Mr. Rogers on the Nice Person scale – but, ultimately, there’s a lack of pizzazz and risk that ultimately surrounds and dooms both records.
(Speaking of pizzazz and risk, the riskiest part of
Secrets Keep You Sick is the art design. At first glance, when you check out the back cover and album booklet, it appears that no track listings, lyrics, credits, or thank-yous are to be found anywhere. Ah, but that clever art director Don Clark [coincidentally, also the guitarist for Demon Hunter] has put all that info on there, only in extremely light beige letters that blend in with the white background very well to create a very secretive look. Get it, “secretive”? As in,
Secrets Keep You Sick? Ha! Well, I’m all for artistic ambition and creativity here, but it took about fifteen minutes and four songs on the album before I figured out I needed to get a freaking flashlight, and by that point, I just had to start the whole record over because I was too frazzled to go on. I realize I’m coming off as the second coming of Andy Rooney, but no inconvenience is minor or insignificant enough to not vent about in cyberspace. Shame on you, Don! Shame on you and the rest of your ill-mannered Invisible Creature art firm for consistently delivering innovative and appropriate artwork! Jerk. Back to the review.)
Of course, when I say
This Too Shall Pass is basically the same as
Secrets Keep You Sick, I’m over-generalizing a bit. On their 2006 debut, The Fold, unlike Underoath, didn’t need to chase safety; they had already found it. Probably best termed “poppy rock” (as in, some pop/punk here, some Foo Fighters influences there),
This Too Shall Pass was a rather generic offering into an already crowded genre. But while some bands parade their Meijer-brand Cola up against some other band’s Pepsi and act like it’s some innovative, glorious contribution to society (*cough*Panic!attheDisco*cough*), The Fold seemed to realize that their stuff wasn’t reinventing the wheel and they just played their little hearts out. Enjoyable record.
Well, the difference on
Secrets Keep You Sick is that The Fold take themselves a little more seriously here. Dreamlike interludes are sprinkled between songs, interesting programming and techno beats take over a few songs, and, most importantly, most every song prides itself on a huge emotional buildup. “New Skeptic”, for example, starts out with a fairly standard guitar riff and rather vapid lyrics (“Hey, what’s with the girls with the stars in their eyes, screaming blame, love, kisses, tears, and lies”) but winds down with vocalist Daniel Castady shouting at the top of his lungs “Landslide!” – as if the fate of the free world depended on how he said it – and background vocalists pleading, “Don’t let this break you, don’t let this break you down!” Other moments of huge buildup occur during “Hey Rebekah” when tribal drums(!) take over near the end of the ballad and during the album closer “Revisited,” which follows the fairly standard formula of starting out acoustic and busting out the loud guitars and drums for the climactic finish.
If you couldn’t tell from the last paragraph,
Secrets Keep You Sick is slickly produced – then again, what more would you expect from the production team behind Cartel’s last two albums, Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount? Interestingly, for all the bells and whistles the production team brings, the song formulas on the record remain standard fare and reminiscent of other popular artists’ work. The opener “Medicine” is about what you would expect if Cartel were being fronted by Dave Grohl (by the way, who wouldn’t like to see that combination?). Strangely enough, “Down in Doubt and Living Without” definitely exerts a strong Foo influence – and my, doesn’t “Hey Rebekah” sound an awful lot like “Hey There Delilah” from fellow Chicagoans Plain White T’s?
In the end, that’s the problem with
Secrets Keep You Sick: The Fold can effectively and earnestly reproduce other bands’ material, but have a hard time carving out their own style. If the quality of the reproduction is high (see the 3-4-5 punch of the title track, “New Skeptic”, and “Faster Still”), then worries of lagging creativity lessen; but most of the time, the album gives you an apathetic, “Ehhh…, it’s alright, I guess” feeling. So while
Secrets Keep You Sick is pleasant and worth a listen, it’s likely you will not have a very strong opinion of it one way or another.
Recommended Tracks:
Your Secrets Keep You Sick
New Skeptic
Faster Still
