The Flashpot Moments - The Flashpot Moments

​The Flashpot Moments

The Flashpot Moments
self-released; 2016

3.8 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

The Flashpot Moments is the studio project for Tim Cawley. On his self-titled LP The Flashpot Moments he got a lot of help from different musicians to create what you could call anthemic American rock. The album was like going to a Bruce Springsteen concert that is very often going for the crescendo. It’s music that works better in an arena than an intimate setting. 

This music has been replicated for decades and Cawley isn’t doing anything new here. He is spinning a wheel that unequivocally will draw an audience that likes to sing along to songs like “It’s My Life” and “Born To Run.”

The production has to be right or it won't work. Lo-fi is going to work. It’s just unacceptable if you want to get people to hold their lighters and sing along with the words. Luckily, the album gets the production right. 

The song are all anthemic whether it’s “Abigail, Mispronounced (The Party Aftermath)” that sounds like a B-side from the band Boston to “Places Unknown” which has a classic breakdown with the steady bass drum followed by monstrous toms. 

​The band occasionally is a little subdued like on “‘Splode (The Party Prelude) which you could argue has some similarities to Spoon on the verse. As the album progresses you can make reference to plenty of prolific rock bands from The Replacements to The Cars and more. The point is Cawley plays into tropes many of us have come to know and love. He closes with an eight-minute epic which sums up the album perfectly. 

Cowley is far from the most original artist I have heard in 2017. In fact his music feels more like a homage to anthemic American rock. If you are tired of the same old Tom Petty and John Mellencamp album The Flashpot Moments should bring you some joy.

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