Faces on Film: Some Weather

Faces on Film
Some Weather
Nice Music Group
2011-07-19

When Mike Fiore’s Boston-based band Faces on Film released their debut EP back in 2005 they were easy to write off as a poor man’s Modest Mouse. Over the last seven years, Fiore has quietly evolved into a dynamic singer/songwriter specializing in haunting pastoral folk. I say “quietly” because, despite supporting gigs for high profile acts like Guided by Voices and the Shins, nobody seems to know who Fiore is. Someone needs to put together a street team for this guy, because his latest LP, the gorgeously hazy Some Weather, has been floating around anonymously for a year already. Weather finds Fiore seamlessly dabbling in creaky Americana and widescreen country pop. Tracks like the loping, hook-heavy “Great Move North” and the spooky, string-laden “Bride” would stand tall next to recent offerings from fellow reverb-obsessed folkies like Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. Toward the end of the album, on the wistful waltz “Fire and Fume”, Fiore pleadingly sings “I need a victory”. If Some Weather is an indication of things to come, he certainly deserves one sooner than later.

RATING 7 / 10