Having made a modest dent with their 2002 debut Can’t Stop I’m Being Timed, Cork five-piece Fred have already carved out an impressive, if understated, niche as a bumbling, breezy outfit with a cheerful head and a punkish heart.
On first impression Making Music So You Don’t Have To is a ticklish, impulsive body of work, but its happy, functional marriage of strings, piano and guitars hints that the band have played nice, taken their hyperactivity medication and developed the album into a gratifyingly mature, ambitious and reflective work.
That’s not to say that Fred have entirely abandoned their trademark frivolities. As such, it’s an album that defies convention and classification, all the while grinning from ear to ear at the listener’s occasional perplexity. ‘October’ is driven by a lo-fi, Urusei Yatsura-type energy, and ‘Here Before’ glides with a summery agility that would make Badly Drawn Boy blush. Meanwhile ‘Djin Djin’ is immediately adorable, sparky, and positively awash with mischief
At once rowdy, majestic, uncompromising and quaint, Fred are proving to be the shimmering jewel in the Capital of Culture’s crown. Well, they don’t call it the beautiful south for nothing…