Fifty One - 2024 - Love / Hate

(44:30; M&O Music)






















Track list:
1. Adios Motherfucker 2:54
2. Stroke of Midnight 3:59
3. Dead End Situation 3:56
4. Wearing Black 3:52
5. The Irish Punk 4:26
6. Living Hopeless 3:58
7. In My Head 3:57
8. Our Paradise 3:40
9. Budd's World 4:08
10. Tall Can Lovers 3:55
11. Silly TV Shows 2:32
12. The Last One 3:13

Line-up:
Max Ducat - vocals, guitars
Theo Mattera - guitars
Julien Maleuvre - bass
Alex Ortega - drums


French band Fifty One have been around for close to a decade at this point, with an initial EP to their name released back in 2020 and with a small handful of singles to their name as well. At the start of 2024 they signed up to Frenchy label M&O Music for the release of their full length debut album "Love/Hate".

The promotion for this album points towards something called the California scene and name-drops bands such as Blink 182 and Sum 41 as possible points of reference. While I have heard about the latter two without being overly familiar with them, the first of those references is an unknown one for me. Presumably this will be a useful reference for others.

What I get from this album is that this is a band that know their way around both hard rock and what I more or less erroneously tend to reference as pop punk. In this case the vocal style and vocal melodies in particular comes with that pop punk association, with some of the structural patterns and instrument details adding a little bit of an emphasis to this. That the song tends to be uptempo, energetic and uplifting in spirit is another element that strengthens this association. The guitar sound and guitar riffs comes with a bit more of that hard rock vibe for me, with some passages featuring an additional layer of power and intensity that adds a little bit of metal spice to the proceedings. With the instrumental opener 'Adios Motherfucker' perhaps being the prime example of that. The often more expressive drum patterns also add a little bit of an emphasis on the hard rock aspect, at least in my personal opinion, and we get a song or two that arguably have a tiny bit of a grunge feel to them too. More up front expansions to the landscapes explored comes in the shape of folk music elements featured in one song, no prizes to be given to guess in which song where this is the case, and on a couple of occasions we also get a little bit of a ska addition to the landscapes explored.

This is a competent band that are well aware of what they want to accomplish, and have the skill set to execute according to plan too. A good album, but also one that possibly comes with a little bit of a finite reach. In my view, those who enjoy their 80s and 90s hard rock just as much as they enjoy pop punk bands from the same decades will be the core audience demographic for this production, and quite a few in that crowd will probably find this to be quite the charming album.

Olav M. Björnsen, April 2024

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/fiftyonefr/
https://www.m-o-music.com/

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