Collective Fear – Foster (2022)
Collective Fear is taking us on a dreamy journey through their EP Foster, while also filling us with the urge to sing along to each track. Using tracks packed with contemplative vocals, hard-hitting guitar riffs, dreamy sweeps and atmospheric rises, they are bending traditional genres and filling the spaces with different melodic elements. Continuing to draw inspiration from a range of styles, the band adds a splash of something retro to the fusion tones.
Michael Guerard, the man behind the band, has been steadily releasing singles over the last year as he showcases this project’s ability to merge tones. Now, with this EP, he completes the journey he has hinted to, with a physical press on cassette tape adding to the retro vibes. If you are in the mood for a dreamy journey that has a little something for everyone, this might just be the EP for you.
The EP opens with ‘White Gloves’ which sets the fusion tone of the tracks, bringing a hit of 80s shoegaze to some 90s alternative rock. The thrumming in the opening vibrates in your chest, while the drums coil a bouncing energy into your muscles. A hazy wash of synths tickles over this movement creating the first touches of the fusion tones. While those vibrating tones from the opening carry the potential of a rock burst, the synths and vocals soften the soundscape for an almost dreamy shoegaze vibe. It is a really wonderful merger of styles and tones that work perfectly together. The pace of the low level keeps you moving forward while the lightness of the synths and vocals are a soft cloud drifting across an endless sky.
‘Part of the Plan’ opens with a rich haziness that seems to reach out toward the horizon with delicate pastel tones. This expansive feeling is pierced by a guitar note that shoots through your chest. The vocals have an almost sombre feeling to them as they tickle the back of your brain. As the single progresses, the vocals get a dreamier movement as they rise from the sombre contemplations of the opening. This is an overall hazier song compared to the opening, but the guitar adds a wonderful leading texture that hooks you into the movement.
The notes that open ‘Victimless Crime’ have a rather melancholic edge to them that reminds you of a foggy morning. The rise of rock vibrations brings a new swirl of emotion that encapsulates you in a nebulous bubble that drops for the vocals. The vocals seem to come to you from a distance, like thoughts that flit through your brain in those moments between sleep and waking. Leading to the chorus, there is an old-school rock movement that has your shoulders swaying and head bopping. This song is shoegaze rock at its best with vocals that detach your brain and melodics that allow it to float where the band will lead you. The composition brings injections of new sonic lines that add texture, while retaining the overall softness of the track.
‘Novocaine’ has a more intimate reflective feeling to the opening that is almost stark in its movement. It is like a single light illuminating a corner of an otherwise dark room. The vocals are a whisper from the dark that ruffle the hairs at the base of your neck, making you want to look around for a disembodied voice. Halfway through the song, there is a slight elevation of the vocals, and drums that fill some of the dark spaces of the soundscape. The addition of trilling tones enhances the almost sigh of the vocals, making this a really interesting track to listen to for all of its relatively stripped-back melodics.
The EP comes to a close with ‘Thanksgiving Day’ which uses a warmer acoustic tone to get your attention. The earthiness of the acoustic guitar is a delightful contrast to the rest of the EP and really helps the song stand apart. There is an old-school folk feeling to the vocals as they enter with a slight harmonised echo. You can easily imagine this song being played, as you sit on the porch looking out toward the horizon. The softness of this track is so different to the others, but this makes it the perfect song to end the EP. The vocals have a soothing contemplation and reflection woven into them that we are all able to relate to.
Collective Fear takes us on a journey of expansive soundscapes, fusion tones and contemplative lyrics across the tracks of Foster. Each track has a unique feeling while capturing the story of the EP as a whole. The softness of each track ties them together, while adding to the overall ease of the listening experience.
Find out more about Collective Fear on his Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
