The Enigmatic Foe
THE ENIGMATIC FOE | THE ORIGINAL PLAN | S/R | JULY 30TH, 2021
Bio:
The Enigmatic Foe is the work of Knoxville-based songwriter and musician, Jared Colinger.
The tunes on his upcoming new album The Original Plan (July 30th) often remind of a melancholy Andy Partridge of XTC, which is, frankly, a quality we all need to hear about in music more often.
Essentially, Colinger’s pop tunes are wrapped in just enough self-awareness to be relatable, and just enough sadness to land.
Back to operating The Enigmatic Foe as a solo project, Colinger is once again the Mayor of his own Simpleton (XTC!), although there are a few citizens about including Frank Lenz (Headphones, Richard Swift) on Drums and Josh Dooley (Map, Fine China) on Electric Guitar.
The Original Plan was mixed and mastered at Swift’s studio National Freedom by Chris Colbert.
With Colinger alone at the helm again, he is also now in full command of articulating those all-too-common solitary feelings of self-doubt and inauthenticity that permeate music that sticks like this.
“I’m afraid they can see right through me / That I’m just a facsimile,” he bravely sings on album opener “Simulacrum,” a cathartic and personal song written shortly after Colinger’s father passed, where he sings about the possibility of being an inferior representation of his Dad.
The song leads right into what could be a meta address of the “Simulacrum” concept by lifting a song title from The Who on Colinger’s original tune “The Kids Are Alright,” the album’s first single. Far from a facsimile, however, the song shows off just how singular Colinger’s voice and music actually are.
Clearly, the confinement of working within his newly re-solo status suits Colinger well. Or, maybe he’s just a great actor?
“I’m not sure what possessed me to write from this perspective,” he says of “The Kids Are Alright.” “I have no personal experience with being divorced or having kids. I may have written it out of fear!”
RIYL obsessives will also hear shades of Squeeze, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths on Colinger’s expansive 14-cut The Original Plan. Contemporaries such as Empire of The Sun, Tahiti 80, and Starflyer 59 (who Colinger has actually collaborated with previously) also ring bells.
The Original Plan also delves into a variety of less expected sounds, with “Pavlovian Cement” and it’s Latin Jazz-leaning dueling saxophones, the country shuffle of “Ninety-Nine Percent,” and a 6/8 waltz courtesy of “It’s Not Who You Are.”
The overall concepts of The Original Plan address the idea that we often (or maybe never?) end up where we originally set out to get to. Colinger’s route has certainly been circuitous to the max.
Over 15-plus years of releasing music, in what venerable rock magazine The Big Takeover calls “a classic evolvement narrative” (also noting that Colinger’s guitars twinkle “like better ‘70s FM rock,” natch), Colinger has mastered the simplicity of reaching for and writing about what’s right there within.
He makes this task that so many writers never manage to achieve look, well... simple.
The Original Plan by The Enigmatic Foe is schedule for release digitally on July 30th and as a deluxe two-LP vinyl set.
NEWS:
PRESS QUOTES:
“It mixes leisurely, Church-like shoegaze... with more propelling, Kitchens of Distinction / Real Estate dreampop... springy, vivacious, The Go-Betweens / Smiths indie pop... and even jazzy and disco-fied, horn-flecked soul.”
“With flashes of Squeeze, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths, Colinger capably and intelligently tows that thin line between melancholy and upbeat jangly pop, creating that right amount of self-awareness in his songwriting to make it relatable, but also tug on your emotions.”
PRESS RELEASES:
SOCIALS:
YouTube: bit.ly/3azfpCE
LISTEN:
Bandcamp: enigmaticfoe.bandcamp.com
Spotify: spoti.fi/3evtKRP
Apple: apple.co/3gzMkee
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/enigmaticfoe
Assets:
Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe as photographed by Stacy Littleton. Click for hi-res.
Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe as photographed by Stacy Littleton. Click for hi-res.
Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe as photographed by Stacy Littleton.
Jared Colinger of The Enigmatic Foe as photographed by Stacy Littleton.
The Original Plan album cover art. Click for hi-res.
“The Kids Are Alright” single cover art. Click for hi-res.
“The Suffering Art” single cover art. Click for hi-res.
“Ms. Fortune and Her Mate” single cover art. Click for hi-res.