Finger Eleven - Five Crooked Lines

Finger Eleven
Five Crooked Lines
2015

Finger Eleven took a five year hiatus before releasing their newest LP Five Crooked Lines. IT was back to basics for the group on this record. Strip away the shine and polish that they had developed on their two most recent records and get back to the basement, back to a more pure form of rock. You can hear the difference immediately on this album, everything is a bit more muddled blending together in a live sort of way rather than layer upon layer of tracks. It makes for a grungy sound that is refreshing and off putting at the same time. The oddness comes in that the vocals are still crystal clear like Scott Anderson was the only one not on board with the change in direction. Many of the tracks are solid rock songs but the suffer in the mix from a lack of power. They should be jumping out of the speakers but they are understated and intentionally kept quiet. "Wolves and Doors" should be an in your face anthem but you can never fully get on board because it never gets loud enough. "Come On, Oblivion" is the bands shot at a shoegaze track the most experimental and probably the best on the record. They take a real different approach on this song and it brings to mind Pink Floyd in that it's allowed to rock but also float along in space.

The crazy thing about this record is that it was recorded in just 11 days and mixed in only five. This adds to the immediacy that the band was looking to regain on this album, but it also takes away from what could have been five years of writing and refining. It is absolutely amazingly done for taking only 11 days, but for a group that didn't need to rush, why did they? Finger Eleven have said in interviews that they were going for a classic rock vibe on Five Crooked Lines but something just does not come through. Be assured played live these songs are going to sound damn near perfect. In the end the concept is an interesting one, but the execution somewhat misses the mark. This type of record can be done better, and should be.

5 out of 10