Variety can confuse on Forfeit/Fortune

Not one member of the band Crooked Fingers appears to be of Hispanic descent. In fact,… Not one member of the band Crooked Fingers appears to be of Hispanic descent. In fact, frontman Eric Bachmann, the primary mind and voice behind the group and former member of Archers of Loaf, comes from North Carolina ‘- nowhere near a Spanish-speaking country.’ But upon hearing Crooked Fingers’ latest album Forfeit/Fortune, hot climates and rowdy Mexican bars are some of the first images that come to mind ‘mdash; that is, if Mexican bars commonly have house bands that capture a Latin influence, while maintaining a dark, melodic, Arcade Fire-like sound.’ Forfeit/Fortune is an ambitious album. It fuses instruments, talents and even languages. Sometimes it falters only because of too much variety. Crooked Fingers shows its multiple skills on Forfeit, but it also demonstrates inaccuracy in its direction.’ Bachmann writes and harps out Crooked Fingers’ anthems. His fellow band members include Miranda Brown, Tim Husmann and Elin Palmer.’ But Forfeit brings together more people than the original four, and a larger variety of instruments to create the fuller sound that it strives for. Some of the album bursts with the noise of clarinet, flute, trumpet and cello, while particular songs such as ‘Sinisteria’ work with an upright bass and a lap steel.’ Big names, such as Silver Jews’ Brian Kotzur and Devotchka’s Tom Hagerman, contribute. Hagerman plays violin, boosting the album with Devotchka-esque, gypsy rock any time the strings are involved. On the last track of the album, notable musician and one-time Crooked Fingers tour mate Neko Case teams up with Bachmann for a down-home, country-feeling song entitled ‘Your Control.’ Though Bachmann uses some of his guitar, vocal and saxophone abilities to boost the solo act that he occasionally takes on tour, he puts the same effort into this group.’ Members of the band have moved from indie labels Merge and Saddle Creek to eventually work with Red Pig/Constant Artists, Inc. To the group, this move meant leaving out the big-to-do marketing and focusing on spreading its music through smaller record stores and online downloads. Though Forfeit has a definite Latino vibe, many of its songs offer completely different tastes. Sometimes Bachmann’s rough voice, mixed with saxophones and guitars, sounds like a street-side gypsy combination, while other times the female vocals turn a song into an ambient orchestra. In ‘Luisa’s Bones,’ Elin Palmer and Miranda Brown harmonize their voices in a hauntingly beautiful melody that tells an equally haunting story: ‘We came by the rising of the river / On a river with no name / In the summer monsoon rain / To wash away Luisa’s bones / From the ghost that guards her grave.’ Mix these lyrics with a consistently quick drum beat and rolling guitar strums, and out flows a completely catchy tune. Rather unexpectedly, ‘Phony Revolutions’ opens with a poppy, male-female duet. Even more unexpectedly, this simple scheme fades into an exciting blend of background wailing that is overlapped by a woman speaking Cantonese. Things change again toward the end of the album in the song ‘Run, Lieutenant, Run.’ At first Bachmann sings with morose tones, backed by quiet instrumentals. Suddenly, with little foreshadowing, his voice is slightly modified, and he’s yelling in Spanish. It’s a very welcoming change, though, because Bachmann pulls off the rough conquistador act like a pro. In Forfeit/Fortune, Crooked Fingers struggles to land in any specific genre. It can be disconcerting when one can’t place a band into a mold or pattern of some kind. Is it the band at a Mexican bar, or is the multi-gendered, multilingual group just pushing the boundaries of inflexible genres? Within Forfeit/Fortune, beyond the cactuses, cowboys and costumes, lies the answer, if there is one.