Fairburn Royals - Sunshine Slowdown
(self-released)
Blah blah blah Athens, Georgia blah blah end of review. The Fairburn Royals self-released, hand-made debut has sat on my desk for several months now, not necessarily begging to be reviewed, but politely waiting for its turn. In order to appease it even though the album isn't fresh on my mind, here's a quick description. Sunshine Slowdown is the type of indie rock album that used to be a dime a dozen, say, in 1995. Now, in 2002 (and perhaps even more so back in 2001 when the album was released), something this indie pop is somewhat rare, but it still isn't worth that much more than 5/6ths of a cent.
Sunshine Slowdown is enjoyable though, and will make you look back fondly on the days when members of something called the Elephant 6 released albums on essentially every label that ever existed (remember that Dressy Bessy album on Quarterstick? wicked). In true Elephant 6 style, Sunshine Slowdown is even a concept album, this one covering common events in every day life that somehow have something to do with getting older. We all get old, and we all get fat, "just like Elvis" (as hammered on in "The Older Elvis"). However, unlike Elvis, who did lots of prescription drugs, got lots of head, and even dated Cybill Shepherd, day-to-day life for normal people like us can be pretty mundane. In "Secretery's Day" [sic], the Royals relate the need for validation for our daily chores. The band's simple delivery makes them seem more existentialist than absurdist. Musically the Fairburn Royals are solid but unspectacular: some songs work well, some drag and seem misguided. They deserve credit, though, for following the straight and narrow path of indie pop and not drifting into the discount psychedelia their recent Athens forbearers have languished in.
Perhaps the Fairburn Royals deserve more respect than 5/6ths of a cent. Their main fault seems to be that their a N-th generation Athens, Georgia indie pop band that happens to sound a lot like the N-1-th generation Athens, Georgia indie pop bands without doing much of anything better than those bands. (Perhaps this notion should have been made into a song on Sunshine Slowdown!) Their next album comes out in November on obscure emo label Two Sheds; perhaps it does a better job of trancending the boundaries of being and sounding like Athens.
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