With the release of their third album, Further Seems Forever presents us with...you guessed it, another lead singer. The evolution goes as follows: Chris Carraba, Jason Gleason, and now John Bunch (formerly of Sense Field). Overall, this is a pretty impressive roster but unfortunately for fans, it's difficult to remain faithful to the band when each album has a completely different sound.
With history set aside, Hide Nothing proves to be the band's most solid effort. When you pop the disc in you can expect to find instrumentation similar to the last two albums: complex, layered, and written in time signatures that require a bachelor's degree in music theory to decipher. The songwriting and vocals, however, are a whole different story this time around. First of all, Bunch is flat out a better singer than Carrabba and Gleason combined. He may lack the raw charisma that the former two singers possessed, but his refined and mature voice works brilliantly with the new songs. As far as lyrical work is concerned, also reigns supreme over the other albums. Bunch's songs all contain an imminent sense of urgency and hope. These themes resonate through the entire album.
The album opener "There's a Light up Ahead," starts abruptly and sets the initial pace for the album, which is relatively upbeat. "Someone You Know," the next track and debatably the best song the band has ever written, has every element of a great rock song: loud guitars, big drums, and most importantly simple/catchy vocals. In the midst all of this rock pandemonium there are a few mellow moments. The songs "For All That We Know" and "Hide Nothing" provide well-placed ballad gaps.
Unfortunately, there is a catch to all this praise and that would be the live show. I had several opportunities to see FSF play this summer with their new personnel, and it was very disappointing. The band had absolutely no energy, and Bunch as an onstage front man was awkward at best. In the end it really all boils down to this: Further Seems Forever has become a fantastic studio band. They are not the wild, young heartthrobs they once were. But, that's quite all right because Hide Nothing turned out to be the breakthrough album that the band tried to make twice before.
