:: Faker - This Heart Attack

Faker

This latest single from Sydney group Faker ticks all the boxes we’ve come to expect from Australia’s answer to British indie-angst over the years. Sadly however it doesn’t do much more. With a style (both musical and sartorial) that seems the poor relation of groups such as Franz Ferdinand and Razorlight there is little to grab the listener in this identikit rock-ballad on the ‘disconnection’ of modern life. The pedestrian lyrics, ‘I’m going away to be alone/ I’m coming back with answers’, with their all-too-familiar images of unanswered phonecalls, and journeys of self-discovery are the real weakness here, with not a single trace of that irony that might have redeemed them. Musically the track is harmless enough, and should Australia ever produce a home-grown version of The O.C., Nathan Hudson’s yelping vocals might find a happy home in the vanilla soundtrack to implausible teen crises. Extras on the CD single include a bland acoustic version of earlier song ‘Deathwish’, as well as the much punchier and more energetic ‘Alex’, in which for the first time some real personality almost appears, just in time however to be cut short in this miniature afterthought of a track that barely tops a minute.