Album Review – Fools Mate by R.E.Seraphin (2024) (Take A Turn Records / Safe Suburban Home)
A few years ago, in the COVID-19 time excesses, I found myself with too much time to think. This resulted in my middle-aged ‘Kevin’ (I am reliably informed by my teenage kids that this is the male equivalent of a ‘Karen’) surfacing in the form of grumpy mumblings about power-pop being consumed by paisley shirt-wearing, long-haired oldies who, despite being able to make their guitars sing, had been doing so in the same way since the 1970s and 1980s.
Thankfully, acts such as Mo Troper, 2nd Grade, The World Famous, Diners, and The High Water Marks have come along and found new, more fertile ground to plant the power-pop flag into and rescue a genre that was in desperate danger of being consumed by a parody of its own yesteryear.
Following on from his superlative Tiny Shapes debut album of 2020 and a Swingshift EP of May 2022 that had all the micro-blogs that matter wrestling each other in a ‘no, we like him more’ contest, this Fool’s Mate album should see Bay Area’s R.E. Seraphin take his place at the same table as the abovementioned kings of power-pop modernity, whilst simultaneously adding his own undeniable sense of originality.
Now with a full band consisting of luminaries from Chime School, Al Harper, and Sob Stories that allows him to ‘go further’ than the power-pop of his previous releases, Fools Mate revels in the hushed tones of introspection, with tracks best represented by Argument Stand, Virtue of Being Wrong, Worst I’ve Ever Seen, and the lead single Bound all cushioning the intimate warmth and emotionality of his slight, perfectly under-produced vocals with crystalline melodies and jangled guitar lines that accentuate the positive impact of his new band members.
Not that those who are considering buying this album based upon the promise of raucous will be entirely disappointed as the heavy psyche-encrusted Contraband and Somnia join the more traditional power-pop sounds of End of the Start and Expendable Man in crunching their way through your consciousness.
R.E. Seraphin is a glorious soldier, assisting in the good fight against a genre that had refused to move on for so many years but is now becoming so very vital again.
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