Premiere: Full Body — ‘What’s Good?’
Posted: by The Editor
When our planet’s working properly, it shouldn’t still be 80 degrees this time of year, and the leaves should already be halfway toward adopting their autumnal shades. Though, perhaps the only real benefit of catastrophic climate change is that its nurtured a late-season bloom for The Flower City—at least in regards to its indie rock. As if Total Yuppies’ despondent crunch-fest Care, and Big Fred’s gargling bass-bash Oh Hi Hello, weren’t evidence enough of Rochester, New York’s rich soil, Full Body‘s debut full-length What’s Good? has legitimized the city’s September harvest as bountiful.
The quartet had inconspicuously dropped a handful of generally promising EP’s since 2015—including one earlier this year—but none demonstrated the confidence, craft and creativity present on the eight-track What’s Good? It’s a record that drips and oozes as much as it clatters and crashes; whips and hurls as easily as it chains itself in place. Although Exploding In Sound-ish acts like Pile, Two Inch Astronaut and peaer are certainly reasonable comparisons given Full Body’s long, monotone vocal sustains and needly guitarwork, What’s Good? travels at a pace that often recalls the prickly jolt of Donovan Wolfington or Prince Daddy & the Hyena. There aren’t really conventional hooks, as the vocals are often secondary within the mix, but the lead riffs violently scratch themselves into the inner linings of tracks like “Shut It Down” and “Too Real.”
“Pixel Perfect” and “Bready” are songs where the rhythm section dominates; the former introducing the recurring snare thwack and a pummeling assortment of fills, the latter featuring mucky chugs that’re driven by the filthy bass tone. Closer “F Song” is the cream of the crop, though. Being it’s the record’s longest, the band have the time to construct an arc that matures steadily and blossoms into one of the most extraordinarily gratifying song finales of 2017; the main lick increasing in both volume and pitch until it’s beaming outward like a glorious ray of drought-inducing sunshine. By the time the album’s over, What’s Good? is a rhetorical question.
Stream the whole dang thing below prior to its release this Friday via Sad Cactus Records:
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Eli Enis | @eli_enis
