Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 04/06/2004
One would think that a mixture of jumpy
ska-punk and intense
post-hardcore wouldn't work, but
Folly's full-length debut is a surprisingly cohesive and solid album. It helps that the band has developed this blend organically over the years: after starting in the late '90s as a standard-issue
ska-punk band in the general
third wave style, the band has dropped the horns but kept the rhythms (think of how
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists work
ska and
R&B into some of their songs) even as guitarists
Agim Colaku and
Geoff Towle introduce
post-hardcore repetitive riffs into the tunes. Against this unorthodox but appealing mashup, singer
Jon Tummillo occasionally comes off merely as a distraction; cutesily nonsensical song titles like
"I've Been Running for Miles, Davis" and
"Please Don't Shoot the Piano Player, He's Doing the Best He Can" and otherwise unmemorable
emo-shaded lyrics don't help his case. Quirky but exciting in a way that many straight
ska-punk or
post-hardcore albums aren't,
Insanity Later is at the very least an interesting stylistic experiment.
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide