Album Review: Tim Fite

Brooklyn's Tim Fite has delivered the album you wish you'd found during those awful teenage years, filled with that unexplainable, embarrassing and hormone-driven emotion that Fite has refreshingly managed to capture and compress into 13 diverse tracks, without resorting to wailing, screaming or distorted guitar.

Rather than arranging samples as in the past, Fite has taken a new direction. The multi-instrumentality of the record gives a polished and organic sound, yet he maintains his signature eclectic style. Lyricism is not his strong point, at times clichéd and uninteresting, but this fits into his focus here. Instead, his melodic pop-funk and electronic arrangements are worth the listen alone. Steady percussion hooks us into Girard, forming the backbone of the track, before fleshing out to Fite's vocals accompanied by the liberal use of dark guitar riffs.

Surprisingly, it then evolves into a rhythmic, electronic soundscape and quasi-rap, shifting the mood. In just one track, Fite has shown he's the master of manipulation. This multiplicity continues with Joyriding, demonstrating Fite's exuberance and newfound freedom through catchy pop hooks and soaring vocals, while We Are All Teenagers and My Brother Sings prove sparser and contemplative while still being immersive and affecting.

This is an evocative showcase of Fite's talent, pushed beyond mediocre by his skill in mixing and arranging, a confident and catchy album, still managing to portray the self-awareness and turbulent emotion of those teenage years.