Fjord Rowboat is a band from the Great White North, and their roots are certainly reflected in their music. The band’s debut, Saved the Compliments for Morning strikes a wintry balance of sound and imagery. Craig Gloster’s airy vocals ride the frosty guitars like a ghost on the breeze and the spectral reverb appears and vanishes, never quite showing itself in its entirety. On tracks like “Simply Stood,” each instrument peeks in and out of the sonic snow, creating a distant symphony that keeps itself deliberately just out of reach. Although there are tight effects interplay on Saved..., Fjord Rowboat paints a pretty façade over music that isn’t really that inventive. The chiming guitars of Justin Grant and Matt Collum are gorgeous on the ears, but fail to engage. Prudently, the band breaks out of the swooshing psychedelia once in a while to pump out some distortion. The straightforward rock of “Can’t See the Sun” shows the twinkling guitars mingling with howling wah pedal and chunky four chord maps. Things get even heavier on the white-hot “Paragon.” The bellowing overdrive finally cuts through the ethereal layers of the twin guitars with vengeful fury.
Saved the Compliments for Morning is a lovely little window into a frosted-over landscape of chirping dissonance and swaying panoramas. Even if there’s little meat to the music, Fjord Rowboat knows how to put on quite a light show.
--Matt Wendus
