|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| |||
Foil[noun] Rating: 9.0 A Foil is a thin piece of sheet metal, or a light fencing sword with a circular guard!
Foil To foil means to bring to naught.
Foil "To trample" is an obsolete definition of foil.
Foil To foil is to Frustrate.
Foil In literature, a foil is someone or something that serves as a contrast to another, like Tiny Tim to Ebeneizer Scrooge, Lady McDuff to Lady Macbeth, or Banquo to Macbeth.
Foil Come on! I'm talking about Banquo! His sons will live to be Kings!
Foil The literary foil is written so that the reader can better know their hero. Foil are also a Scottish guitar-rock band whose stylistic similarity to the Pixies tends to magnify the creative and emotional differences between the hero and their foil. It's both obnoxious and obvious to point out that any band is not as good as the Pixies. However, this one prods us by acting out the modern rock construction of "foil to the Pixies," and then get all in your face about it by naming themselves "Foil." Unfortunately, Hugh Duggie and the other Foils don't bring their sacred construct to the heights that Banquo did in Macbeth, and I don't think I have to tell you that our Banquo wouldn't have gone on a lengthy tour with Moby. Put on your tights and bouffant collars and we will examine the evidence: I read in about eight different places that Foil's guitar and vocals recall the Pixies, and there's no question that Trompe le Monde and Frank Black's Teenager of the Year were huge influences. The vocals in "Easy Life and Ignominy" slow down to mimic Black's signature deliberate staccato, reinforced with an echo effect and punctuated with brief surf guitar flourishes. A few seconds later, a drum fill and guitar-alarm herald a euphoric burst of rolling hooks. This winner of a song structure is swiped from songs like "Speedy Marie" and "Headache" off Teenager. Sadly, Foil weren't able to approximate Black's lyrical brilliance or the inspired insanity of his playful delivery, and the addition of Manwiched grunge-guitar and a Girls Against Boys bassline are not equivalent replacements. The lyrics are the standard "life in general" fare; dreams, regrets, promises, lies, small vignettes, simple philosophies, and "yeahs." Of course, if any of them were all that bad, I'd reprint them here to make this review more entertaining at the band's expense. But not today. As Foil says, "Now I just waste time/ Fingers clicking/ Drifting in and out and in and out." Never Got Hip is reasonably competent and some of it's even quite catchy, which brings us to the 5.0. As long as we're being pseudo-literary here, I'd like to mention that the numbers in the Pitchfork rating scale do not always go exactly in the traditional order (i.e. 4 before 5 before 6, etc.) order. Numbers are symbols, like words. For example, I'd be more interested in hearing a record given a 0.0 than a 1.2, and a flat 5.0 seems slightly more damning than, for instance, a 4.8. When an album's rating gets into the 2's and 3's, it usually sucks in its own special way and is often worth a few laughs. A 5.0, however, is not only obscured by its own inability to produce pleasure or pain, but represents mediocrity itself. The well-written foil is an important part of the drama: Banquo's decisions redefined Macbeth, and in doing so, rewrote one of the most famous tragedies. Plus, Banquo's sons lived to be Kings! Foil seem a boring foil in comparison. I knew Banquo. Banquo was a friend of mine. You, sirs, are no Banquo.
|
|||
