Fol Chen – Part II: The New December

Annoying “mysteriousness” aside (really, the whole “we’re mysterious and no one knows who we really are” thing is tired), Fol Chen seem like they’re on to a good thing. Their dense, arty weirdo-pop has a lot going for it if you’re interesting in deconstructing alt pop and rebuilding it with slightly different blueprints. Unfortunately, they do a few things wrong in the reconstruction. There’s an interesting abruptness to some of the music, as in the halting skitter of The Holograms or In Ruins, and a density of sound that brings to mind other similar artists. “This is Where the Road Belongs,” for example, is electroish – sorta - with a neat little pulse the leads into some creepy sonics and keyboards layered like nugat between buzzy wafers of sound. Yet somehow all the interesting sounds fail to add up to a single arresting track. Good? Sure. Arresting? No, and without a hook to hang it on, your interest might just fall to the floor – unless the concept and sound itself interests you. Decidedly one of those albums where you need to hear it to decide.