Before Grave Dancers Union, Soul Asylum was a balls to the wall garage band; pure, unfiltered and raw. No countrified garbage, no "Runaway Train" and no Winona Ryder. Fig Dish remembers. That's What Love Songs Often Do, the band's debut effort, manages to reignite the sparks created by such 80's pioneers as Husker Du and early Soul Aslyum, while still creating a fresh, aggressive and multitextual sound.
Hailing from Chicago, Fig Dish can look forward to being lumped together with such windy city alterna-legends as Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill and Catherine, and to do so would not be entirely inaccurate. Fig Dish's sound, while containing many of the core elements of the Minneapolis music scene, does inherit one key attribute from its Chicago lineage, that being an extremely complex and layered song structure. Songwriters Blake Smith and Rick Ness succeed in creating songs which ellicit varying emotions, change tempos frequently and fluctuate between the gentle and the heavy all within the confines of a four minute parameter. Like the songs of Billy Corgan, That's What Love Songs Often Do lacks nothing but simplicity.
The music on That's What Love Songs Often Do ranges from guitar heavy garage rock to gentle and foreboding laments, frequently deviating between the two extremes. The album opens feverishly with "Bury me", a quick shot of adrenaline which sets the mood for things to come. Next up is "Weak and mean", a well crafted, angst ridden tirade which conjures up images of a troubled and one-sided relationship told with just a touch of necessary punk pride. The vocal duties on the album are shared by Smith and Ness, each having a raw and gruff sound eerily similar to that of Paul Westerberg, managing to be downright beautiful and haunting in spite of its dominating graininess.
The true gems on the album are the anthemic and blistering "Seeds" and the seductive and brooding "Quiet storm king", both containing elements of maturity and intelligence noticeably absent from more auspicious debut efforts. "Seeds" is a multilayered epic which overflows with raw energy, heartfelt emotion and fuzzy guitars. "Quiet storm king" begins in much the same fashion, but its chorus is stripped of all excess, leaving just the drums and the interspersed vocals of Smith and Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon, in an uncredited, yet memorable turn.
The problem with making such a mature and complete debut effort is that expectations will naturally be raised to all but unattainable levels upon the release of Fig Dish's sophomore album. Judging by their current release, however, Fig Dish seems capable of rising to the challenge of following up one great effort with another and yet another. While most fledgling bands seem content with just getting their foot in the proverbial industry door, That's What Love Songs Often Do is the kind of debut album which rips the door off its hinges and sends the industry running for cover.
