Fightstar - One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours - 2007

The story of Fightstar is an amusing one. See, Fightstar's front man, Charlie Simpson, was best known in England for being a member of a boy band called Busted. After two albums, Simpson was feeling musically unsatisfied, and started playing with guitarist Alex Westaway and drummer Omar Abidi at a party. A few days later, they started practicing together at Simpson's house, and Fightstar was born. In fact, rumor has it that Fightstar was what caused Simpson to part ways with Busted in the first place. (Fun fact: Busted is best known over here because two of their songs were covered by the Jonas Brothers, who had a big hit here with one of them.)

Fightstar's been good for Simpson. They've put out three albums thusfar, and each of them have been good-to-great. They went on hiatus while Simpson put together his second solo album, but they should be back in the studio shortly. They're post-hardcore, which means not quite metal, not quite punk, not quite emo. They have nice elaborate guitar structures, soaring melodies, introspective lyrics and good interplay between the instruments.

I think I chose to write about "One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours," the band's second album, for two reasons. First, you have to love that title. Second, my favorite song from the band, "I Am The Message," is on this album. The funny thing about Fightstar is that I find about 3-5 songs per album that I really love, 3-4 songs that I like but don't find myself seeking out, and 1-2 songs that generally just kind of bore me (or still contain Cookie Monster Vocals, one of the musical tics that sends me up the backside of the wall).



"I Am The Message"moves along at a good clip, with hopping guitar lines and a steady quickstep bass line that dances with some fancy drumming. It's typical of the sort of tones and styles you'll find on "One Day Son." It's not the only great song, by any means. I also put "Floods," "We Apologize For Nothing" and the melancholy "Unfamiliar Ceilings" into the playlist of songs I think people would like.