Music Review // Fritz Michel "On the Rocks"

 

As soon as this song start, Fritz Michel sings that: "Our ship wrecked / cause I never checked the weather".   It's funny because when I see the phrase "On the Rocks" I think about how drinks are served with ice.  This is mainly because of the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", in which the character of Eddie Valiant asks for a drink on the rocks and is brought alcohol with literal rocks in it.   This is not the case for this Fritz Michel song, however, as this one is more about being on the rocks after a boat crash.

Musically, Fritz Michel is doing a great job of combining noticeable genres while blending them to create a sound all their own.  At times this reminds me of a band such as Fastball because it has those sharp guitars.  There is also a strong element of this being rock n roll in the way that you would hear from the film "That Thing You Do!".    A cool vibe, sort of like something you'd hear from Buddy Holly and that era of rock n roll, also comes through.  Within all that is also a sense of electric folk.

Lyrically this song is seemingly innocent enough but of course you can dive deeper into it.  The concept of this being about a boat crashing because things were not well planned out can be seen as something as simple as the plot to "Gilligan's Island".  Yet at the same time, that lack of planning can come into play and remind us that sometimes life doesn't go as planned.  Sometimes you feel like you have it so bad off or that life just isn't going your way for whatever reason, so it takes something like a boat crashing to make you realize that you don't have it so bad after all.

This song just also has a strong vibe for how I would imagine someone singing it would be dressed.  I partly imagine someone in a white button up shirt and black tie, to have that Fastball effect, but then I also just imagine someone dressed like The Fonz for that Buddy Holly/cool deal.  Either way, this song is less about your boat crashing and more about what you do after that, when you see that other person and realize you're okay, they're okay and life doesn't seem quite as bad as it did before.