In 2018, members of hardcore legends Have Heart and post-hardcore heroes Basement released Springtime and Blind, a stunningly tight and catchy piece of post hardcore that was as catchy as it was urgent. Despite its clear hardcore roots, there was a remarkable pop sensibility that injected each song with throat-shredding singalong passages, all wrapped up in a 25-minute package.
At the time, it seemed like a lightning-in-a-bottle record. The kind of record that was singularly excellent, even if you couldn’t quite describe why. And usually, these sorts of records prove incredibly difficult to follow up. After all, capturing lightning once is almost impossible. But twice?
Apparently it’s not that hard for Fiddlehead.
On Between the Richness Fiddlehead doesn’t make any efforts to reinvent the wheel, but why would they? The formula that created their debut hasn’t hit diminishing returns yet. In some ways, this feels like the second half of a single fifty-minute album, especially as the lyrics seem to follow up Pat Flynn’s grieving process that informed the first record. It has the same urgent, jangling open chords, the same angular drum beats, the same half-screamed, half-sung vocals, the same spoken word interludes…and it’s just as worth the price of the disc.
If there’s any change though, it’s that the band seems even more self-assured. If they had any reservations with leaning into more melodic songs, they’ve shed those here. Despite Flynn’s often ragged delivery and the punk energy that pushes most of these songs along, these are pop songs in the finest tradition. There are shades of Tom Petty, The Beatles, and the Eagles that would be more obvious if the songs were slower and sung with more concern for his vocal cords. Just listen to “Joy Boy” try to ignore the impulse to blast it while driving down the highway with the windows down. You can’t.
And while that comparison may be most obvious on the most reserved track, it’s hardly the only place it comes up. The chorus of “Million Times” rides a classic chord progression that could easily slide into the repertoire of beginner guitarists everywhere. With its earworm of a chorus and classic rock guitar solo, “Loverman” is sure to find its way into some teenaged dramedy a la Freaks and Geeks or Everything Sucks. The opening couplet “Grief Motif” and “The Years” feel tailor-made for the sound of a crowd shouting along.
None of this is to say they’ve lost their hardcore chops. Tracks like “Eternal You” and “Heart to Heart” pack plenty of punch without feeling abrasive. Even the more relaxed numbers still pump with an undeniable punk heartbeat.
Like its predecessor, the entire album doesn’t make it to the thirty-minute mark. But it doesn’t need to. Between the spoken-word samples of e.e. cummings, the band offers more passion and emotion than most bands do in albums twice or three times its length.
In all, it’s an incredible album, but in a way that isn’t easily explained. Thousands of bands have combined these elements in similar proportions without approaching the heights Fiddlehead reach here. But there’s some secret alchemy in the way these musicians play together that brings out excellence from simplicity. And sometimes, that’s all you need.