Review: Fred Thomas- All Are Saved

So, like most people coming to this album, I had never heard of Fred Thomas. I just happened to get a free single in my Polyvinyl order with 'Cops Don't Care Pt. II' on it, and it got me intrigued. So I checked this album out, and I have not been able to stop listening to it. It'll probably make me look through the rest of Thomas' discography, be it solo or part of his countless collaborations. I don't know how someone who has made this much music has evaded me for so long. And if this album is any indication, Fred Thomas has been putting out quality material for years.

I'm not even sure how to describe this album. For the most part, it's a singer songwriter affair, but with moments of synth laden trip out sound effects and other weird sonic experimentation, with some of the strangest and yet very relate-able lyrical content. It's kind of like if Mark Kozelek fronted some sort of acoustic MGMT offshoot. It's weird, but great. This is an album where as soon as the record's over, you press play and experience it all over.

This album shares a lot with Sun Kil Moon, as I kind of already said with the Kozelek comparison, but the extremely specific stories, complete with pointless minutia somehow makes the experiences described more relate-able, even though none of these things were likely to have happened to you in exactly the same way. The lyrics are just very vivid, especially 'Bed Bugs'. I can definitely picture the subject of that song, and I've felt like that person sometimes as well.

I first listened to this album in a park, on the first warm day here in Pittsburgh. It was one of those kind of perfect experiences, just to absorb the work and soak in the first legitimate rays of sun in months. This record, with all its darkness, was still a very uplifting experience and is one of the most interesting, personal, sonically diverse, and well executed albums of this year for me. There's not much I can say about this album, other than you really should give this a chance. As for me, I'm off to track down a back catalog.

Out of a total of five stars, I give this:

Check back in soon for my thoughts on the new Tyler, the Creator record, and if you're interested, a list of what I picked up on Record Store Day.

 


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