Fiddlehead delivers with another hard-hitting post-hardcore masterpiece in Between the Richness.
If you’ve been around Boston’s music scene over the past seven years, chances are you’ve heard of Fiddlehead. The post-hardcore supergroup emerged out of the ashes of bands such as Have Heart and Basement, with Shawn Costa and Patrick Flynn of Have Heart joining Alex Henery of Basement and others in the post-hardcore scene to create a truly power-packed unit. The band returned this year with their second full-length release, Between the Richness, a highly anticipated album that follows their last LP, Springtime and Blind, which was released in 2018. Thankfully, this newest album has lived up to the hype, as Springtime and Blind was an unintentional hit, and Between the Richness picks up right where the band left off in 2018. Fiddlehead themselves admit that neither of their records were made with any sort of ambitious intention, as the band formed by happenstance. Flynn was working as a history teacher, and happened to be living with Alex Dow, the band’s guitarist. Basement’s disbandment prompted other members to begin working with Flynn. The spotlight seems to have found this band despite the group’s humble beginnings.
Fiddlehead artfully toes the line between their hardcore roots and indie rock in Between the Richness. Flynn ditches the hardcore scream he often used in his former group and instead opts for more of a hearty yell. Yet, he retains some of the screamed vocal motifs of the hardcore genre in songs like “Life Notice.” Appropriately, this track is followed by “Joyboy,” which bears more of a resemblance to an indie rock band like Pavement than it does to a hardcore band, with its mid-tempo rhythms and guitars accompanied by just a twinge of crunchy drive. We see a similar phenomenon in “Eternal You,” where the drums are aggressive and up-tempo but the guitars are only mildly driven in contrast. The song even drops down into a spoken-word portion that is purely mellow in instrumentation, without any of the aggressive percussion from earlier in the song. This sort of variation in aggression carries on in the following song, “Loverman,” where the verses are mid-tempo and mild with a more impassioned chorus featuring a cymbal-heavy drum line and shouted vocals.
Much like their past works—and that of the group’s predecessors—the lyrics of the album overflow with positive hardcore affirmations. These lines, shouted at full volume throughout the album, result in a feeling that can only be described as life-affirming. In the second track, “The Years,” Flynn declares “nothing can change the pain and I don’t want it to.” “Down University” features lyrics such as “rising pressure and stress to measure up to standards set so high in your mind” which are sure to resonate with a young college-age crowd. The combination of these heartfelt lyrics with instrumentation that doesn’t quit, such as the ever-up-tempo “Heart to Heart” makes listeners want to get up out of their seats and jump around.
With live music returning in the near future, a Fiddlehead show is surely not one to miss. The band’s music is meant to be appreciated live, specifically while getting punched in the face in the pit with a bunch of hardcore fans. Until then, we will just have to appreciate the music in its recorded form. But without a doubt, when Fiddlehead does play live, they’ll bring the roof down.