Hopewell - The Curved Glass
(Priapus)
Hopewell consists of some folks who have spent some time in mental
hospitals. Their music reflects feelings of despair, a need for release and
solitude. Though, it's veiled fairly well behind a folk-tinged psychedelic
rock sound.
This album improves upon their sound by developing the dynamic of song
structures, and the sweetness of their pop hooks. The vocals grab your ear,
and the melodies stay in your head for hours. The songs build from quiet
drums, bass and ambience to distorted, somewhat chaotic space rock.
The band's weak spot is a tendency toward songs that sound as if they were a
children's song gone psychedelic. It mostly lends their style even more of
a catchy quality. However, the beginning of "Christmas Now" shows that the
child-like melodies can go too far. The following song, "Moonman," is a
gorgeous song which makes up entirely for any points lost on "Christmas
Now."
And, though I tend to think that a reprise is inherently bad, the "The Angel
is my Watermark / Watermark (reprise)" combination is done very tastefully
and ties the album together nicely. It comes across as a genuinely cool
idea, not the theatrical lite-metal-band type of idea that it would usually
make me think of.
Hopewell are very good at writing engaging pop songs with a healthy dose of
distortion and noise, balanced by ambience here and there. Somehow they
combine The Flaming Lips and Spacemen 3, straddling the fence between
sugary, fuzzy pop and heavy, repetitive drone.
|
