More than just local talent, September 23, 2009By Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
There will always be rock and roll royalty, but what we really need are more fools. These Fools in particular came out of Boston during the new wave splash of the early 80's, and these two albums were the sum of their EMI/Capitol output. They were probably to kooky for their own good (missing from this is their notorious Talking Heads parody single, "Psycho Chicken"), but they still had terrific energetic musicianship and enough sense to make their straight-up cover a version of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared."
"Running Scared" actually cracked the top 50, while the single from "Sold Out," "It's A Night For Beautiful Girls" (a terrific single reminiscent of early Joe Jackson) became a cult fave on modern rock radio. There's plenty of evidence here that The Fools could have gotten bigger; while "Sold Out" was an obvious attempt at EMI trying to hitch them to acts like The Knack, "Heavy Mental" found the band opening for the likes of Van Halen. (Hey, Blotto used to open for Blue Öyster Cult.) The Fools were solid enough to bridge both crowds, but like so many bands of that period, they got lost in the crowd.
Even if they couldn't break out of their northeastern fan base (they still gig and record in New England), songs like "Local Talent," "Sad Story" "What I Tell Myself" and a rave up cover of "I Won't Grow Up," prove The Fools were smarter than most people let on. Great to find this out from the American Beat label.
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