The Weekly Coos

Fred Again’s new album Ten Days came and went without whiffing my attention over its direction with each fleeting moment he emotionally displays song to song. It makes the final product more understandable, but a considerable disappointment as you get rare moments that can retain some sense of attraction around mostly moody deep or progressive house beats and club-pop/dance grooves. Though he can, and does create upticks in the tempo with “Places to be,” where that energy gets heightened by its DnB-influenced production and fire verses from Anderson Paak and Chika, yet, the concept he weaves gets lost by not expressing more unique soundscapes. That isn’t to say Ten Days is some boring record that lacks cohesion, instead, it’s more unimpressive, as if there isn’t much to Fred’s life that we haven’t heard through his Actual Life series. Being so, it made listening to the album tiring; I kept waiting for more like stuff like “Places to Be,” or the beautifully composed and ambient piano-heavy “Fear Less” with Sampha, but when it is more and more like the track “I saw you,” there isn’t much to recommend outside recent live sets.

Conceptually, Fred’s album Ten Days delivers an interesting direction that could work wonders if the music was stronger. Between each song, short interludes ease you into what’s coming next, whether through vocals or an instrumental that sets up a following track’s tone, like a prefix to a suffix. It doesn’t feel new or refreshing as these setups have been implemented within songs before, more so through vocal samples, but here, they have their own identity and it speaks to you like a short spark where you sense this is where an idea formed, even with the occasional weak track. As the title suggests the album’s long tracks were created in Ten Days separately, one song a day. It’s in the vein of Actual Life, where the days are scattered and it opens up the world for more range, but it isn’t as consistent. There are moments where the music tinges on exhuming more creative inputs, but without it being more than just a few times, you get left with more of the same, like with the final track, “Backseat” feat. The Japanese House & Scott Hardkiss, where it feels more like a loosie off a Japanese House record more than a Fred Again record. 

With slight highs coming from the breaks/interludes and the songs that feel different, it’s more of a disappointment because you don’t want more of the same. It’s as if Fred Again has found a template and now fearing anything new, consistently. Though the highs, which include “Places to be,” “Fear Less,” “Glow,” and “Where will I Be,” are something to come back to, others are tepid, leaving little to the imagination and waning. That doesn’t decry the quality of music you’re getting, but he’s playing it safe, and one’s left with an album that goes through the motions without making an impact. “Glow” and “Where Will I Be” are the two that are more apropos to his style of deep and progressive house rhythms but they are more free-flowing. “Glow” is a seven-minute melodic house instrumental that doesn’t feel anxious and just goes forward with powerful momentum. The same goes for “Where Will I Be,” which samples the song of the same name by Emmylou Harris with an interesting, more soulful take that elevates it from the ballad-like Country track the original is. I wish more of the album were like these, instead you get a more typical house track in “Adore U.”

As someone looking forward to Ten Days, I wish there were more to recommend; Fred Again is only as good as the creativity imbued in the production, Parisi and Skrillex are common factors sprinkled throughout the tracks I highlighted co-producing depth. They make him shift from the expected and elevate the music you’re consuming, especially on “Places to Be,” the definitive highlight of the album. The drums are dynamic, and the DnB beat is enigmatic, delivering more to the imagination of what once was someone with some range. Fred has produced for Headie One and Ed Sheeran, and more, but he refrains from tapping into different tempos more and letting them come together fluidly. What could have been a solid House/Dance album, becomes lost in trying to expound on feelings through these days, instead of being encouraged to shift the sound dynamics. He brings some interesting ideas, sampling tracks in his verses to create more back and forths, but the content Fred himself delivers isn’t also anything interesting. At least, bigger fans may find liking more than what I did.

I can’t expect people to deliver projects with thematic depth like Nia Archives’s debut this year. But you can at least expect change, and Fred Again doesn’t give us much of that. I was left tepid, not caring for what I heard after numerous listens. I still respect the highs we got, but it’s not enough for me to fully call this new album Ten Days anything more than just decent. It may be more of a preference thing, but even if he is playing it safe, the tracks could have been more inventive and they aren’t. It doesn’t diminish Fred’s talent as he is still constantly producing and creating some solid hits, but this latest venture wasn’t it. Maybe you’ll be more of a fan of the album than I was, but at this point, I don’t see it growing on me as the days go on.