The Fernweh – TORSCHLUSSPANIK! review

To save you looking it up, TORSCHLUSSPANIK! is a German term which loosely equates to fear of missing out. Or something. For Liverpool’s The Fernweh it’s definitely a syndrome which they could fall victim to: released in 2018, their eponymous debut album became a word of mouth success, prompting a rise which culminated with a slot on the following year’s Teenage Cancer Trust show at the Royal Albert Hall. And then? well..you know.

True, they aren’t the only band to have career momentum taken out of their hands. But equally further delays with modern day hassles such as getting physical product out mean the band’s second album comes with a not unreasonable measure of both impatience and expectation all round. The outcome is…interesting.

Whilst the temptation to play their psych-folk a wee bit straighter for the daytime radio crowd must’ve been strong, the band only appear to have really given in to it on opener The Wounds of Love and the bandstand stomp of Pas Devant Les Enfants. Still more Syd Barrett than Fleet Foxes, the eccentricity and magic of their first outing is never truly recaptured, although The Pike staples together glam era Roxy and The Kinks deftly on a return which is otherwise good but not as definitive as it should’ve been.

You can read a full review here.