Fantasy Suite - Cool Country/Soft Pop - Missoula, MT
by Jordan Finn
You wouldn’t think that jamming the round peg of synthesizers into the square hole of country music would ever work - one is a genre grounded in rural traditionalism, the other a harbinger of the machine age. But if older artists like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty have shown, alongside contemporaries The War on Drugs or Kurt Vile, the effect invigorates the old and the new. Like chocolate and peanut butter, Missoula’s Fantasy Suite utilizes this harmonious concoction for authentic indie-country on their sophomore record One on One.
For their second LP they’ve expanded on their four core members - Foster Caffrey (bass), Zoë Phelan (guitar and vox), Lukas Phelan (guitar and vox), and Jon Cardiello (drums) - to include Mia Soza (keys, q-chord) of the group BOY FEUD, Rachael Patrie (vox), and Nate Biehl playing baritone guitar for a few songs. Don’t be fooled by their occasional silliness - the music is anything but flippant. Fantasy Suite revels in the imperfections and wry smiles that complement their sincerity rather than distract us from it - all while delivering us a polished and focused piece of art. The humor and rampant nods to country motifs shore up a record as playful as it is earnest. The album oscillates between joyful rockers and moonlit waltzes, raucous celebrations and smoky ballads. Giving the album a full listen is akin to rambling down Main Street, USA on a sultry summer night, stopping in at all the honky-tonk joints where some crowds sway plaintively on sawdust floors while others spill out into the street as you’re drawn in to some toe-tappin’ hoedown. One on One is replete with enough tricks and surprises to bear listen after listen - room-filling synths, cheekily delivered phrases, and guitar licks so country-fried you can almost taste the moonshine on your lips.
It’s incredibly difficult to get bored when the songs have such a range of instruments and voices to fill up so much sonic space. There are so many clever moments that don’t feel hammed up or forced - perhaps because their adherence to the country genre coupled with their indie-folk stylings doesn’t restrict but rather enriches. It allows the band to selectively stress motifs from the country canon and make indie songs more dynamic, or - in a sort of reversal - sneak in a synthesizer where you’d expect a slide guitar. Whether or not Fantasy Suite deviates or emphasizes the drawl and cowboy chords, it gives the song just a little bit more of that extra character. And when they do lean into that twang, you can’t help but tilt back on your chair sporting a toothy grin. By replacing the tropes of fiddles and harmonicas with synths, sound effects, and q-chords, it modernizes the genre while enhancing country’s ability to tug at the heartstrings and to feel grounded once again. If we listen to country music to relate to the taste of grit in our teeth and the earth under our feet, marrying a swelling Moog with cowboy chords is a surefire way to contemporize the ambiance of country.
What fubs there are on the record contribute to the charm in the same way that you can’t tell if they function purposefully as they do with The Raincoats or the carelessness of Beat Happening - not that it even matters. Any minor mistakes add to the sense that you’re not experiencing some dialed in masterwork, but a bunch of guys and gals feeling it out, precision be damned. Their intentions don’t suggest sacrificing accuracy so much as valuing emotion and rhythm to shove perfection out of the way. They achieve it splendidly. And with songs and production this good, it’s hard to complain about such minutiae anyway. Moments like on “Motivational Coach” when Lukas sings an emphatic “exciiiiiiiited!” and boosts himself up the vocal register, we’re reminded that we’re really listening to a true blue country tune. Vice versa, on the build for “Inside the Ring” the understated I-know-I’m- gonna-kick-your-ass-so-I’m-not-even-gonna-get-excited that color’s Zoë’s “I’m about to tear this shit up, I’m not holding back,” manages to toy with the expectations of the genre before returning to a soundly country chorus. A song like “Number One” is a standout number with the simplicity of slowcore and the closest thing I’ve heard to a perfect guitar solo in a long, long while. The seamless transition from “Love Hat” to “Number One,” the drop and build on “Motivational Coach,” the nearly jarring and jerky drum pattern on “Basketball’s” chorus - these little details really make the album, like the hidden easter eggs of memorabilia adorning the peeling wallpaper of an aged dive bar. Fantasy Suite sees the big picture but they also know how to hone in on the nuances that make not just a song but an album.
The late, great Gram Parsons said he didn’t play blues, country, or rock and roll but “Cosmic American Music,” some amalgam of styles that transcended the boxes of genre. Fantasy Suite’s return is one part new and one part old. They’ve managed to make a record that doesn’t rely on pretension or irony but a composite of wit, honesty, and passion. One on One is an unconventional mixture that blends melody, tradition, and humor into a timely package for a generation eager to invent future sounds without forgetting its past.
