While I tend to gravitate towards the darker, seedier side of rock n’ roll – what can I say, it speaks to me – it’s hard to deny that every once in a while, a dash of light can be refreshing. Rock music is an ever-evolving beast: the free, flowery jams of the 60s and 70s; the stadium-sized aggression of the late 70s and 80s; the subtle, DIY mentality of indie rock in the 90s and beyond. No matter how you attempt to slice the impossibly dense, internet-cultivated diversity of music today, we are undoubtedly in an age that favors the serious over the fun. Free Energy know this, and frankly, they don’t give a damn. 
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a party, not-so-subtly rolled my eyes at a particular choice of song, and then promptly been told to “lighten up” by one of my friends (“Not everyone is depressed,” is another common phrase that’s been used to scold my taste in music). Maybe I simply care too much. Maybe I’m just a snob. It’s probably the latter. Regardless, Free Energy make a sort of music– classic rock inspired bubble gum pop– that could be worth lightening up for.
The tracks that make up Love Sign, Free Energy’s sophomore LP, will remind you of the stuff your parents grew up listening to. First single “Dance All Night” features a tinkering piano and frontman Paul Spangers singing of how he’s “got a different crush every other week.” “Electric Fever” welcomes a scratchy riff accented by– of all things– a cow bell, the instrument better known for a Saturday Night Live sketch than its inclusion in any modern music. The choices Free Energy make on Love Sign are brave, indeed; after all, it takes real balls to sing a lyric such as “Day or night, wrong or right/I got a crush on you.” Unless you’re Justin Bieber.
Of course, this easy, breezy sort of fun can only stretch so far; there are moments on Love Sign when things turn horribly sour. “Hangin,” is the first of several offenses, with its fluffy, saccharine lyrics and bouncing, boy-band style beat. Seriously, tell someone that “Hangin” was released in 1999 by some young, spiky-haired quartet in matching Canadian tuxedos, and he wouldn’t blink an eye. Love Sign only works when it embraces its identity– a carefree pop album– but holds the cheese.
Maybe Love Sign isn’t really your thing. Still, it’s more appealing than 90% of the actual pop music that plays on the radio. Currently, Free Energy are among the very few bands championing for the lost cause of big, fun rock n’ roll, and even a snob like me can admit that’s a cause worth fighting for.
2.5 / 5 bars
