New Fragile Tom Album "The Particular Go" Reviewed

Fragile Tom are an electronic band from Germany and their new album "The Particular Go" is the follow up to their album "Kingdom Of Mistrust". White Lion Radio gave you a taster from the new album on January's i-Select show and played the tracks "Removed From Fiction" and "Naked Bone".

The opening track is called "The Tone" and is definitely a nod to the Vince Clarke era of Depeche Mode, nice melodies over a meaty bass-line, great rhythm track on this track and strong vocals make this an excellent introduction to the album. "Elbows" is in a similar vain and listening to it I am drawn to the sound of Mr Jones Machine and N-Frequency, a well structured song with well balanced synth parts, the thing I like about this band is they keep things nice and simple when it comes to the synth hooks. "Removed From Fiction" is an outstanding track, superbly constructed with melodic hooks a plenty, a good atmospheric vocal delivered with passion, a definite contender for a single, a moody yet uplifting track, superb!

Next is the track "Together In Here", they do love there little melody parts and why not, they are very effective, this has the hint of an early Depeche Mode influence, a mid tempo song that once again delivers, a beautiful track. Following that we have the title track, with great use of piano and a brilliant punchy rhythm section, perhaps a bit of a Blancmange influence on this track, especially with the lyrics and the way the vocal is delivered. I love the synth melodies in this song too.

On to "Naked Bone" a synthpop gem, catchy and uplifting with brilliant synth lines, that says it all! "Bleak November Sun" is a track that is moody and has plenty of depth, beautiful and haunting strings, bell melodies adorn this track and is another fantastic song. "Anna" is another little synth gem, the synth chorus melody is to die for, there are female backing vocals on this one and they work perfectly with the lead vocal, I must say at this point the lyric writing is exceptional on this album.

"Hollow Eyes" as you would expect has strong synth hooks and some good effects used on the vocals, not as immediate as other tracks on the album but fits in well with the overall sound of the album. "Time" is an erie track with the string/organ chords used which build up the track as it develops, a simple arrangement which is very effective and adds to the atmosphere of the track and I do like how it builds up. To close the album we get an alternative version of "Anna", which is a more in your face dance version, with powerful drums and retains the melodic parts of the original.

I am often amazed at the high standard of the music sent in by bands that are part of the independent electronic music scene and this album has both surprised and delighted me, it is a confident piece of work with superbly crafted songs, my advice is simple, check this album out as you wont be disappointed.

An absolute pleasure to listen to 8/10

 The album is available via Bandcamp here