LOS FANCY-FREE MENONITA ROCK ALBUM SSC RELEASE: NOVEMBER 5, 2003 REVIEW: OCTOBER 15, 2003

In the biography accompanying the promo of this album, much is made of Los Fancy-Free main man Martin Thulin’s Mexican origins, and the fact that he’s spent the last ten years in Mexico City. No doubt, he environment affects the artistic outcome to some extent, but to claim that Los Fancy-Free’s attitude should be particularly Mexican is rather ludicrous. I dare say that this punk-light electropop could just as well have been made in a damp English coastal town or in the Swedish inland, to judge by the sound of it.
That said, I sure don’t mind the influences on display here: traces of Fad Gadget, Soft Cell and The Human League echo through the music - my favoured end of the electropop spectrum exactly. Sadly, the music sounds a bit too flat and unimaginative to really hit the right spot. What should probably be considered worse (since this is pop music we’re talking about) is that I’ve also got problems with the songs themselves. The single “Voltage Is OK!” is actually too catchy, so much bubblegum pop that I’ve had enough after only two listens (but maybe that’s just my brute taste speaking...), whereas a lot of the rest of the material fails to stick at all. If I were as prejudiced as the biography, this would be the place where I’d suggest bringing a mariachi band in for the next album.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN