The Zephyrs: Fool Of Regrets

The Zephyrs: Fool Of Regrets
For the past decade, Edinburgh’s The Zephyrs have made music that combines elements of folk and shoegaze. The combination built them a strong following in their native land, but little play in America. On their fifth studio album, Fool Of Regrets, the band attempts to expand their audience while doing little to expand their sound.
I should preface this review by saying I am not a huge shoegaze fan. Despite a decade’s worth of releases, I had never heard of the Zephyrs before. I did no reading or research into the band before giving the album a listen so I went in as a tabula rasa. It did not take a detective to figure out what kind of band The Zephyrs were. The opening track “Creative Faith” sounds like Nada Surf covering Blue Oyster Cult. The track has a folky feel with its jangly guitar arpeggio and contains what I would call definitive shoegaze vocals. The album’s second song “Wet Outside Dry In Here” contains the same vocal styling but the song adds a little bit of an alt-country tinge. It is like listening to Bonnie Prince Billy fronting Low.
In my mind the only song that really distinguishes itself is late album rocker, “Automatic”. The vocals are still echoed and a little drifty but with almost Pixies-ish sounding instrumental backing it, the song brims with post-punk alternative goodness. Unfortunately, the song remains the only one of its kind on the album.
As I said, I am not a huge shoegaze fan but Fool Of Regrets seems particular boring to me for the genre. The album packs little punch with the exception of “Automatic”. Some of the songs are a bit more well done than others and I can recognize that but it was not my cup of tea.
Rating: 3.9/10
MP3: The Zephyrs “Automatic”
Buy: iTunes