frYars - Dark Young Hearts

From the moment he released his crudely-recorded but doubly sincere debut EP The Ides onto an unsuspecting internet in 2007, frYars’ Ben Garrett has never had any trouble winning admirers. But despite all the label interest, Garrett has gone it alone - and the autonomy is admirable. He established frYarcorp and, like Patrick Wolf’s The Bachelor, set up a Bandstocks account, allowing fans to invest in the album. But that’s not the only thing he has in common with Mr. Wolf - Garrett’s voice is so identical to the lupine performer’s, you’d think someone would’ve been sued. They’re treading similar ground too: confusingly overproduced art-pop arrangements taking subtle cues from Bowie and Byrne. All the early singles are present, but they too have a sickly lick of studio paint, rendering the malevolence in Ben’s words utterly impotent. The worst part is we know that he’s not another major label castrato - if only the music were as brave as he.