By Fidelity and Fortitude - The Happy Song You Asked Me To Write

Hear The Track Here

Although the name will be convoluted and maybe new to you, the musical mind lurking behind By Fidelity and Fortitude is not. You may know him better by the name JCs Revenge, who I have reviewed a time or two. By Fidelity and Fortitude is, apparently, an 'acoustic sideshow' and 'a place to showcase some new material' or to 'produce some more experimental stuff'. Well, whatever it is, its a place that is separate from JCs Revenge and - presumably - a solo project. JCs Revenge being a fully fledged, working live band who also have a Soundpage which you can see by going clicky clicky. Although they haven't given me anything to get really steamed up about as yet, I live in high hope that they will sooner or later.

The Happy Song You Asked Me To Write is alternative: indie in much the same manner as the band itself, although lighter in tone and feel and with an almost lo-fi production that nonetheless backs up the song admirably. The Happy Song is in fact more charming than its title would have you believe and for alternative fans, this is going to go down well. I can't say, with all honesty that the genre does very much for me but having said that I am liking what is happening on this track, especially its whimsical almost 60-ish feel.

Nonetheless, it is an extremely lightweight listen and wouldn't tax even the sweetest old granny to have a listen ot six to it. Therein, I suspect, may lie its ultimate problem - it may well be too lightweight to make much of a difference. No matter though because it is a good song, and a very decent performance (in a hippyish 1960's stylee) from Sam Christie - the brains behind By Fidelity and Fortitude. In some ways it reminds me of Big Ship (whatever happened to Marcus?) at least in the production style if not in the song itself. The only real problem I had with the track is that it seemed to ewear out its welcome pretty quickly. After more than a few plays it tended to irritate rather than inspire, after more plays than that it really started to grate on me nerves. There again, do bear in mind that I am not a fan of this particualr style anyway.

Very reasonable lo-fi, low key alternative rock.