Fictionist @ Crescent Ballroom

Provo, Utah-based Fictionist wants to make your troubles melt away, and the band can do it in any number of ways. Singer Stuart Maxfield channels a slightly less throaty Caleb Followill over crunchy, stratospheric guitars on tracks like "Swept Away" and chilled acoustic moments like "Still Reaching," and groovy distortion...

By Brian Palmer

May 23, 2013

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Provo, Utah-based Fictionist wants to make your troubles melt away, and the band can do it in any number of ways. Singer Stuart Maxfield channels a slightly less throaty Caleb Followill over crunchy, stratospheric guitars on tracks like "Swept Away" and chilled acoustic moments like "Still Reaching," and groovy distortion and thick drums would make "The Real Thing" right at home on a '70s rock album. But the music is fun, above all else. Guitar-heavy instrumental "Figure in the Fog" has a solitary, recorded-in-a-large-empty-room feel to it, and when it's paired with the grandness of "Great Escape," the scale and sweep of the record becomes apparent and acts as a languid build-up to the main event. Elsewhere, the echoing, ethereal sound of "Silver Girl" makes it the perfect track to blast with your car's window down (just wait until it cools off a little). Maxfield and Co. write songs you can't help responding to, whether it's with an urge to play air guitar on "Swept Away" or to sing in agreement when Maxfield cries, "You are the only one" on "Distraction." That's exactly why Fictionist is so appealing.

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