I’m in love with this self-released debut album. This is what we’ve all been looking for: some tapping, some smooth London-boy vocals, poetic lyrics… These songs sound like effort, patience and thoughtfulness, and the results are beautiful. The London-based group, fronted by Swedish-born Simon Balthazar, must be on the brink of making it big. Fanfarlo’s instrumentation here is grand: from violins to trumpets and mandolin all add to the glockenspiel, guitar and drums.
I’m trying to decide what song I like best; all of them are so charmingly full of soul. “Ghosts” and “Luna” have one sound, while “the walls are falling down” and “drowning men” bring out a different mood. This album is more than music, its pure art. The music induces foot tapping, but also sets emotions whirling. Yet, even with its changes, this is a cohesive album. There is one emotional and melodic journey here; a musical journey I’ve already jumped on.
There’re some bands that surpass the day-to-day shrapnel that so often seems to be significant in music. They simply transcend the bouffant mullets, neon vests and Fisher Price synths – which isn’t to say their art is any more precious, more that they’d rather get their heads down and retreat to craft a stirring opus before freeing it upon the world. … Fanfarlo have mastered the ability to merge a sincere melancholy with a passion that really connects, strings zapping you like electric currents in the sea of kitchen sink instrumentation leading Balthazar’s open-book vocal refrains. ‘Reservoir’ is ample testimony of their talents, and marks the long-awaited arrival proper of one of the country’s most promising (not so) new bands – Clash Music