Stuck on Nothing

Since Free Energy popped up on the grid a year ago, they've seemed out of place in a good way. No matter how flexible the definition has always been, they are not what you might call an "indie rock" band. It started with the five Philadelphians' first mpfree single last spring, "Dream City". The song is a distinctly American take on glam-boogie that immediately brings to mind teenage imagery: cruising around with friends late at night; inh aling bad beer way before you legally should; bottling the kind of wide-eyed, wild-haired feeling that galvanized Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused. It has a huge, classic rock hook. It's frothy and light and waxed to a shine. It is both hopelessly hopeful and unabashedly corny. It is also really, really fun.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2010

Consisting largely of cock rock signifiers, Free Energy's debut record Stuck On Nothing might initially come across as a pointless exercise in derivation. Despite the obvious rockist pastiche, Free Energy are engaged in more than a stale recreation of classic rock reference points; their attitude and approach exhibit a refreshing philosophy that is at least as reverential as referential. Every one of this album's 10 songs is an unabashed t estament to youth in verse; emphasis, in this case, on testament. Though the muscular guitars invoke memories of the macho, misogynous hits of yesteryear, the thematic content is consistently thoughtful and sensitive, with a pronounced transcendent theosophic bent.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2010