Album Review: Ready Fire Aim ‘This Changes Nothing’

By: Mozzer | in: Music |

Ready Aim Fire

You gotta admire a group whose name echoes my strategy in dealing with life. Ready Fire Aim are Sage Rader (Vocals, Lyrics, Electric Violin & Synths), Shaun Morris (Production, Mixing, Engineering & Synth), and JTR3 (drummer for the live shows).

Their debut CD entitled This Changes Nothing has just been released and it is a synth-pop delight. The sound is reminiscent of Leiahdorus, Depeche Mode’s early years, and a bit of The Postal Service.

Ready Aim Fire - I Would For You

Listening to the album, you’ll notice that most of the songs are mid-tempo, but RFA breaks the uniformity by moving from layered compositions to restrained minimalist pieces. It comes off as nice mix of dancey electro-pop and dark, reflective excursions. Lyrically, Rader states he tries to convey the emotion he feels at the moment and I have to agree–It does seem to be a series of stream-of-consciousness declarations.

The songs “End of Over” and “Welcome Home” pretty much set the tone of the album and typify RFA’s sound while “So Fine” stands out as the party track. My favorites are the near-exultant “As If It Were That easy” and the brooding “Better You Than Me”. “Beautiful Thing” is laid back and reminds me of Erasure’s Chorus days. But the high point is the Jane’s Addiction cover “I Would For You” which bravely showcases Rader’s wailing vocals over the barest of song structures.

This Changes Nothing is dark at times, yet delivers straight-forward, accessible synth-pop. Fans of the genre and 80’s synth bands are sure to enjoy this album.

Ready Aim Fire - Beautiful Thing

[Ready Fire Aim on MySpace]

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Posted on June 1, 2008

Comments

3 Responses to “Album Review: Ready Fire Aim ‘This Changes Nothing’”

Charbarred on June 2nd, 2008 7:49 am

Serves me right for just clicking play and not reading all the way to the end…I was just about to write that the first song sounds like Jane’s Addiction…caught it in time though and in fact had I not just confessed it I could’ve saved myself the embarrassment altogether…and yet I keep typing…

DThompson on June 2nd, 2008 1:24 pm

“Beautiful Thing” has a cool Kraftwerk thing going on. Good call Mozz!

mozzer on June 2nd, 2008 7:39 pm

Where RFA excels is in their minimalist and introspective songs. I’d like to hear a full album like that down the road.