“I’m just buying time without you, smiling’s just a game without you,
I don’t wanna play, I don’t wanna play, I don’t want to play this game no more”
The Faim have been poised to steal your heart for a while and now, with State of Mind, they’re running away with it completely, carried by stadium-ready choruses and lyrics that cut in a way only total honesty can.
Kicking off with a darkly glittering rock stomper, “Tongue Tied” will get you snapping your fingers and turning up the bass ’til it shakes your speakers. Before the crescendo even hits you’ll be ready to give your all to this album. And lead single “Humans” will prove your devotion is worth it; turning heartache into something beautiful, the song’s chorus explodes with the raw truth of pain. The Faim have a way of making you feel all at once euphoric and at peace with what’s left you broken.
Many of the songs on State of Mind begin by leading down one road before changing track to take your breath away. “Infamous” starts out as a piano-led ballad, teasing you with intense drum beats before diving into an indie-pop chorus that you can already hear filling up venues with energy. “Want you to save your breath so you can breathe with me / With you I’m never lost” will echo in your mind long after the album moves on.
But it’s “Where the River Runs” that truly steals the show. Stripped down to frontman Josh Raven’s vocals and piano, the song is backed by soft ooh’s and quiet strings used sparingly to give an eerie feel. Telling a poignant tale of love and loss, this song will truly bring you to your knees. Whether looking inwards or out across the world, State of Mind soundtracks the exhilarating highs and shattering lows of what it means to be alive, or as The Faim sings: “Sometimes you gotta break just to know you’re human, human…”
Buy it, Stream it, or Skip it?: Buy it and start your weekend with a fresh
State of Mind.
