FM Attack – The Never Ending - 2021 Electro Synthwave Italo Disco -Sky Blue Marble Vinyl - Sealed 180 Grm LP 500 copies

"No matter how much Vancouver-based Shawn Ward has altered the formula of his storied FM Attack project, the result is inherently FM Attack. From his 2009 debut, Dreamatic, with its synth-pop-, house- and disco-infused numbers and pioneering synthwave sound, to the post-punk vibes of Stellar, and also on the rest of his work, Ward has infused FM Attack with dreamy, thoughtful, and engaging songs stacked to the gills with heart and soul. He hails from that era when synthwave was more about the intersection of nostalgia and emotion, and less about mechanistic, paint-by-numbers approximations of it.

 

The Never Ending, Ward’s new album and ostensibly his last as FM Attack, reflects the classic wistfulwave sounds of the project with cuts that at their core wouldn’t entirely be out of place on Dreamatic or 2013’s also-classic LP Deja Vu. And certainly, there are shades of 2017 album Stellar and 2019 LP New World. But this last hurrah also is coated with noticable brushstrokes of more modern-sounding electronic/indie acts like Empire of the Sun, Tame Impala and Memory Emotion-era Electric Youth. Ultimately, The Never Ending is an FM Attack album through and through and there’s no mistaking that, and it’s a hell of a way to close the booK"