Fancey are masterminded by one Todd Fancey, a Vancouverite who has done time in Limblifter and the New Pornographers, thus the presence of Kurt Dahle as his right-hand man on this project (with his left-hand man being one Doug Nadler [see Hybrahma]).
But there are a boatload of other contributors, most notably a coterie of female vocalists: Sara Wheeler [Cunts], Monica Chattaway [Streels] and Sara Lapsley [Vancouver Nights]. The sound of the band is a light, layered, keyboard-led and harmony-filled Pop-Rock. Predecessors span from the relatively recent like that hometown bunch Zumpano and the latter Mommyheads to the Millennium and a portion of late ‘60s Beach Boys.
This disc came out in the Spring of ’04 and there is a certain emulation of that season contained within. There are songs that are ebullient like how you feel those first few days when the sun is bright and temperatures stretch beyond 60º F. Then there are tunes that impart a sense of those still-occurring overcast days, that barely make it out of the 40s, when you need to turn the heat back on to take the nip out of the air.
The lead off track, Carry Me, once past its spare, solo electric piano intro brings the aforementioned ebullience. Vocals are piled upon piles and the melody floats and wafts like a sparkling Chinese kite. As Rock And Roll Rhythm starts you’re thinking Supertramp and Dreamer.
It turns up-tempo as the rest of the band works their way in but steps back on the entrance of the vocals, a male/female duet with breathy lilts like early ‘70s AM radio. For the chorus everything swells up, taking its lead from the title. Coming out of the instrumental break for the outchorus a counterpoint female vocal adds in “Give Me” to each “Rock And Roll Rhythm” line as a tangy dessert.
‘Til The Morning Comes rides a bouncing synth as slivers of a twinkling harp flash by and then into the concoction comes a few scurries of buzzing fuzz guitar and an echoey, crystalline pedal steel.
On the melancholic, pensive side of the ledger we have the lightly shimmering, male/female duet Autumn Music. In the chorus a second male voice is inlaid, with a wisp of a second female voice also underlaid. All those voices waft around an electric piano in as gentle a yearning melody as one can bear on some days.
Strayed Out is another cut with a prominent female voice, here in a rising, crystalline form during the chorus working in counterpoint to the subdued, breathy male harmony leads of the verses. The pace is languid with touches of slide guitar slipping through the rhythm heightening the traces of regret.
[Released by March 2004]
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