I’m old enough to remember the birth of indie music. Innocent and exciting days of small, back bedroom record labels pushing under-the-radar bands hoping to take on the big guns. In those days, independent music was an attitude and an approach rather than a sound or genre, and the best of what came out of it was some great pop-infused, accessible music that somehow stood with one foot in the cultish world and the other in the commercial. It was underground music striving for a place in the light of the mainstream. And “Where I’m Going,” the new one from Fendahlene reminds me of those days.
The song has an easy way about it, born of the perfect blend of rock groove and pop grace; it is musically muscular, if only slightly, but marvellously melodic too and it echoes with the perfect amount of Americana twang. It is also a song built of the perfect balance and dynamic, spacious verses drawing you in, uplifting choruses imploring you to dance, boogie, throw some shapes, cut a rug, flip your wig…or whatever the cool kids call it these days. A song that rises and falls, ebbs and flows beautifully and seamlessly.
Indie music has since become the realm of self-appointed cooler-than-thou, leather-jacketed kids with designer labels and complicated hair who seem to spend more time consulting their stylist than they do learning how to write songs. Style? Yes. Substance? no so much. That wasn’t always the case, there was a time when it was all about the music and “Fendahlene” is a brilliant return to such values, a forward-thinking yet nostalgic memory of what indie was originally about. This song, and indeed the band behind it, has made an old(er) man very happy.
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