Fluidity - Negative Slant

Hear The Track Here

Fluidity (aka John Paul Carroll from Christchurch N.Z) has done very well in his first year or so at Soundclick and its been good to watch him develop into the consistent - and consummate - purveyor of his own highly particular brand of rock; and Negative Slant is a worthwhile introduction to what he does best. There are a couple of points I will address a bit later but all in all, this track made the same breezy entrance as a lot of his better works, filled with a nicely laid back arrangement and JP's hallmark laconic vocals making it feel like its a track struggling to get out of bed in the morning. Sleepy rock, there's the thing. Except in this case, that's not actually a bad thing and may well be one of this tracks main selling points.

I would be a fool to think that everyone would like Fluidity's style, but he sure makes it easy to like it, consistently writing tracks that are full of musical references (OK for me maybe...) and a intelligent lyric that - often - has something to say. Negative Slant, as you may have gathered, is a lyric aimed at the news media and their treatment of what - and what is not - important for us to know. As such it's a sharp, witty peice, no matter what your own thoughts are on the matter. Serious lyrics doesn't have to mean serious music, and this track gets through a surprising amount of twists and turns in its almost five minutes of existence.

For me, one of the main selling points for Fluidity has been the sense of musical fun, the sheer joy of making music that gels that often imbues his classier tracks and - make no mistake - this is one of his classier tracks. For a while I've noticed him drifting more and more towards a much more commercial (nay pop) sound and by Jove, I think he's got it! Certainly the last couple of Fluidity tracks have been in that idiom and I've liked them all. Although the arrangement of this track might feel ocassionally over-fussy and a bit too sure of itself, that does wear off quite quickly as the song its supporting takes to the stage. I found it helped immensely to read the lyrics while listening, always a sure-fire way to appreciate what John Paul does. For fun and for us.

Class rock pop. Prime Fluidity. Highly Recommended.