Album Review: I Fight Dragons – Cool is Just a Number

I Fight Dragons have a unique draw to their musical stylings; they are a band that’s becoming a part of the growing NESrock/Chiptunes genre. “What is this genre?” you ask? Basically bands have been taking old gaming consoles and applying them to synthesizers or computers to manipulate the old synth effects into their songs.

Most of these bands are decent at best, but this band is unique to the genre as their songs actually are good!

This album, Cool is Just a Number, can be a legitimate powerpop record. The songs are catchy and have great progressions and are a tonne of fun to listen to. For a band that deals with bleeps and bloops of the old Nintendo Entertainment System, their lyrical content can actually go to some deep places when the mood strikes; they’re still 90% a fun poppy act, but there is a lyrical depth to this band that deserves to be taken with seriousness despite how easy it may be to brush aside a band that uses 8bit sound bytes in their music.

The entire album, minus the final track, the acoustic/bleep and bloop ballad With You that is standard indie rock fare, is a fast-paced and very dance-able sonic romp. The opening number, titled Don’t You, sets the energy and can be easily mistaken for any All American Rejects style band doing the circuit these days if it wasn’t for the synths that make this band stand out; fortunately they stand out in the good way though.

The three tracks I most recommend on this album is the opening rocker, Don’t You, the rocking power ballade The Faster the Treadmill and the high energy Heads Up Hearts Down.

Cool is Just a Number is just under $7.00 on iTunes and is very worth the investment. It’s an album with fun tracks, catchy melodies, toe-tapping progressions, relevant lyrics and an 8bit charm that will make any gamer or fan of unique music smile.

Give this album a try, you’ve done worse.