The opening track on Somehow, We Are Here is a statement. Yes, Faulty Cognitions is a punk band with members of Low Culture, Shang-A-Lang, Nocturnal Prose,and more. Yes, this shares a lot of commonalities, but it’s also a new band with a new sound. The band humbly says they were going for an early, jangly R.E.M. vibe but self-confess that it has more of a Replacements thing going on instead. That’s not a bad starting point at all, especially drawing previous projects into that circle. The second song, “Roller Skating and the End of the World,” for example, feels much more in the garage-punk vein of Inject the Light, but more fleshed out. I’d say this song also perfectly captures the band’s mix of serious and playful, sort of a whimsical cynicism. I think of the final product here sounds something like a mix of Low Culture and a synth-less Devo.
I’m further going to analyze by culling from some of the themes on this record, especially “Let The Kids Have The Scene.” In many ways, this is a record about growing older and reexamining your place in the world. So what place has Faulty Cognitions found where they belong? College rock-inspired DIY basement punk. This is melody-first punk with catchy rhythms and singalong choruses that convey a view of the world that’s both cynical and positive at the same time. I think “Sad Sack” is a great example, as the lyrics reflect “Oh no / here we go / again another sad, sad song / written by a privileged man / in the hopes you’ll sing along.” It’s impressive to string the downer of a concept into something catchy. Chris Mason has always hit the sweet spot in making rough melodies memorable for me and this is another example – there is no way that sentence should flow so smoothly. To steal a phrase from “Crisis of Faith,” well, “It was messy / but it was beautiful.”
Faulty Cognitions isn’t a surprise for those who have listened to Mason’s previous bands, but Faulty Cognitions is clearly its own group and this is just the start. The foundation is similar to previous bands, but I hear a lot of new influences as they carve their own niche. I’m curious to see how it develops.
