Since the first time I caught jangly surf-rock band Fort Lean live, about two years ago when I didn’t know anything about them up to now, they’ve really started to emerge as one of those aspiring bands in Brooklyn. Not only have they been more talked about, musically they’ve begun carving a more meaningful niche for themselves. Their first sold-out headlining show at Santos Party House this past CMJ was proof of both of those aspects paying off. Today marks the release of Fort Lean’s new EP Change Your Name, which is more proof that the beach vacation vibes from their debut self-released EP are becoming more substantial and clever.
They haven’t left the “buoyant alt-rock” behind, as our Zach Klasson remarked in his MFNW coverage. They’ve just refined it. Fort Lean is still “a place where the weather is perfect all the time,” but now they’re noticing things besides the weather. Change Your Name feels like four tracks of sunny disposition on the surface, and the more layers you choose to take in, the more layers you find are there. The strongest influence on the EP is front man Keenan Mitchell’s soaring vocals as he packs a good range of emotion and control into some stellar phrasing. This is showcased immediately on the minimalist beginning of slow jam opener “Do You Remember,” and also calls for some production credits for keeping enough nuances to come off raw and intimate while sounding high quality.
“The Mall” is a more rockin, hanging out with your friends tune, when everything in the world seems alright by you. Mitchell sings about driving to the mall and staring out the window, when “everything we see is perfect, and the sun is in my eyes. Everything we see is so good, I just have to close my eyes,” with slow effected guitars giving way to squalling froths just long enough before snapping back to “shut up and take me to the mall.” On this song and the next, “Envious,” Fort Lean has these leanings toward a sassy adolescent attitude that works as a great snarky counterpoint to life ruminations that are way on point. Just when I was thinking that a song about other people not being as fun as them is just a little bit dickish, I also thought, yeah but it’s true sometimes. And besides, “All the Lights” flows out of speakers so sweetly after that, that it’s impossible to hate.
This is an EP of multi-faceted messages with perfectly placed pop lines and bending guitar notes. There’s a great balance of saying something that’s actually pretty deep if you think about it, but coming off in such a light manner that it’s also saying that it doesn’t have to be as deep as all that, and you don’t have to analyze too hard. But shut your mouth and listen to every word they have to say, because if Fort Lean is a place, it’s clearly a promising place to be.
Check them out on Facebook and listen to their first single, “All the Lights” off our last mixtape:
