Be Afraid, Remember Fun – ALBUM REVIEW #26

14 June 202014 June 2020Album Reviews, Music & Records Marc Louis-Boyard

Coming from Vancouver and signed on Hidden Bay Records, the band Be Afraid released Remember Fun on May 8th.

For the record (no pun intended), these six tracks were engineered through the summer of 2019, but not in any case does the music sound outdated.

Remember Fun is a memorable party of many colors, and you’re invited.

Read now, or…

Send to Kindle

Be Afraid, Remember Fun, our review:

The much needed follies of youth

Remember Fun takes us back to our high school years, and efficiently quenches our needs in the field of sweet nostalgia. The six tracks delivered by Be Afraid are not overthought, but are not deprived of reflection. With no promise of revolutionizing music, the band succeeds in the lost art of intuition and spontaneity. Isn’t spontaneity what we really need in this world of experts where everyone seems to have a PhD from Everything-and-Especially-Nothing University?

That being said, this energetic atmosphere is sometimes slightly darkened by studio mishaps and instrumental approximations. But this is also the way a masterpiece called Blood Sugar Sex Magik was built. Have you ever heard anybody complaining about that? Yeah, that’s what we thought. Neither did we.

<a href="http://beafraid.bandcamp.com/album/remember-fun">Remember Fun by BE AFRAID</a>

Striking complicity

June 2013 marks the end of an era : Kim Deal would leave Pixies and her musical partner Frank Black. Chances are, this vibe is now recreated with the intervention of Be Afraid’s two vocalmeisters. Musical interactions are complicated to express, this track will demonstrate our point way better than we can do.

<a href="http://beafraid.bandcamp.com/album/remember-fun">Remember Fun by BE AFRAID</a>

Beyond shoegaze

The music of Be Afraid could be easily categorized as shoegaze, but like with most albums of the genre, it’s obviously more complex than this. Remember Fun is undeniably the cultural product of multiple years of musical education and assimilation, making the result look easy to reproduce. But it’s not. That’s the key to great musicianship, and proof of rare artistic cohesion.

Remember Fun sounds like a tasteful reunion where Sonic Youth, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr and Ween would each bring an exclusive dish, prepared with love and honesty. All that’s left for you to do is now to accept to share it, and to discover that special sauce called Be Afraid.