Saying that FIDLAR lacks subtlety is like saying that Michael Jordan was an OK basketball player. The L.A. skate punks’ self-titled debut, released in 2013, was filled with on-the-nose jams about drinking cheap beer, getting high and skateboarding. It was so simple that it made the Descendents look like King Crimson. But it was also a very, very good album — arguably the best punk debut since Against Me! dropped Reinventing Axl Rose in 2002.
With Too, FIDLAR seems to be picking up where they left off in more ways than one. Yes, their lyrics are still straightforward, but in every other way, the band seems to be growing up. Opener “40oz. On Repeat” sees singer Zac Carper in a state of arrested development, drinking forties in his room and wondering why he can’t get money or girls, while still maintaining that he’ll never sell out.
Carper’s lyrics on Too seem to describe the fallout of FIDLAR. Yeah, getting wasted all the time is good fun, but what happens when the buzz wears off — if it ever even does? “Sober,” a talky-pop-punk jam, answers the question with the line, “I figured out when I got sober/ life just sucks when you get older.” There’s always been an admirable self-awareness in FIDLAR’s music, and it’s never been more apparent than it is now.
Musically, the band has grown leaps and bounds. “Punks” and “Hey Johnny” are anchored by loud, fuzzy guitars, while the aforementioned “Sober” is built around Jim Carroll-esque monologues and sing-along hooks. And “West Coast,” the album’s finest moment, is the type of sunny, cynical and damn-near-triumphant rocker that a hundred SoCal punks before FIDLAR have spent entire careers trying to create.
Too is almost definitely going to alienate certain fans of FIDLAR. It’s an ambitious album, and in a genre marked by slacker ethos, a lot of people aren’t going to like it. People, especially punk fans, tend to get mad when bands try to grow up, but everyone grows up; time doesn’t stop moving. FIDLAR is no exception, and it appears they’re going to keep on growing, whether their fans like it or not. After all, their name is an acronym for “Fuck it, dog, life’s a risk.”