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Some of you may be aware of this band from the entry into the last Unknown Pleasures. Since 'No Love', I have fallen head over heels in love with this album and think it deserves wider recognition among you, the Buzzjack faithful.

 

I think it's potentially one of the albums of the year, it flows beautifully from beginning to end (with one exception, Bring Us Closer Together which is just a bit too pop to quite fit in) and the quality remains high throughout. I've posted some tracks below but I'm of the opinion that the album works best as an entirety, here's what Pitchfork had to say...

 

Hooray For Earth must've looked like party crashers when they opened for Surfer Blood and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart last year. Though they've staked out in different territories in terms of both production and influence, both headliners embody an ideal of what indie rock meant in the 1990s. Pains and Surfer Blood are heavy on the guitars, with songs written and recorded by four or five people in a room, each of whom has an easily identifiable job-- essentially a scrappier version of the "alternative rock" on the radio back in the day. Meanwhile, Hooray For Earth are what people are thinking of right now: songs composed on synthesizers that take cues from dance and psychedelia, fluidity between the roles of the players. But all in all, game recognized game, for on True Loves, Hooray For Earth also display a precocious knack for massive, major-key hooks that are "indie rock" in name only.

 

As you could probably guess from the preceding description, advance singles "True Loves" and "Sails" placed the New York quartet in the packed house of bands often tagged with "what we wished Congratulations sounded like." It's unfair on both counts, robbing MGMT of some sort of agency in their artistic trajectory and limiting Hooray For Earth in terms of scope. With its candy-coated vocals and fluorescent production, True Loves siphons color from all points on the synth-pop spectrum. The spiky arpeggios of "Realize It's Not the Sun" and "Sails" pay homage to the Knife as well as Depeche Mode's arena-ready 90s, but each employs them for divergent purposes. And the title track offers upstroked, ska-rhythm guitars and Noel Heroux's dexterous falsetto run, along with dub-like painting around the edges with eerie, desiccated sound effects.

 

Though sounding more like a singles collection than a coherent album-length vision, True Loves seems to unfold in a way that shows Hooray For Earth steadily accruing melodic confidence. While the six minutes of electro-tribal mantras on closer "Black Trees" recall earlier Yeasayer, the nervy palm-muted guitars and bold synth-horn charts of "No Love" and "Bring Us Closer Together" easily top Odd Blood's attempts at Trevor Horn-styled 80s chartbusters.

 

But the sequencing isn't perfect: In between the killer bookends, serviceable mid-album palate cleansers "Same" and "Hotel" form a 10-minute stretch that roams a bit too far off course before the big reveals. The lull in momentum is more pronounced since the lyrics can be simultaneously too plainspoken and standoffish: As extroverted as these songs sound, you really never get a full sense of Hooray For Earth's personality. Still, it's no slight to say they've allowed themselves room for growth after True Loves, and there's little reason to believe their name won't be at the top of the marquee on the next go-round.

 

Tracklisting:

 

01: Realize It's Not The Sun

03: Sails

04: True Loves

05: Same

06: Hotel

07: No Love

08: Bring Us Closer Together

09: Pulling Back

10: Black Trees

 

Some clips...

 

'Sails' (one of my favourites)

 

'True Loves'

 

'Hotel'

 

'No Love'

 

The closing track, 'Black Trees'

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Definitely one of my albums of the year too. 'Sails', 'Same' and obviously 'No Love' are all fantastic. :wub:

Ah, didn't know there was an album! Must get onto it pronto.

And that artwork :wub:

I fell in love with No Loves when I gave a few UP songs a listen and downloaded the album straight away, it's SO GOOD. I have such a huge pile of albums to listen to and seemingly no time though so I've only been through it once :(

 

No Loves really is in contention for my song of the year :wub:

Edited by 152chris

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Is it really? Wow. :o Although in that case it's a shame you weren't voting in the contest then! :D

 

 

Oh and Cremey, I don't think that it is the real artwork but I prefer it so stuck it in there instead. Think that's the earlier EP from last year which also has a couple of decent tracks on it. Wish they'd hurry up and release the album here, seems to have been out in other countries for ages. :/

Is it really? Wow. :o Although in that case it's a shame you weren't voting in the contest then! :D

Oh and Cremey, I don't think that it is the real artwork but I prefer it so stuck it in there instead. Think that's the earlier EP from last year which also has a couple of decent tracks on it. Wish they'd hurry up and release the album here, seems to have been out in other countries for ages. :/

 

I am using that for the artwork too! Not keen on the actual cover. You must be feeling pretty cocky right now?

No Love has grown on me since the contest to the point now that I adore it and I still listen to it reguarly, so I will definitely check this out.
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I am using that for the artwork too! Not keen on the actual cover. You must be feeling pretty cocky right now?

Ha! I don't think this has ever happened before! :o

 

No Love has grown on me since the contest to the point now that I adore it and I still listen to it reguarly, so I will definitely check this out.

Glad you grew to like it. :D

 

I really can't stop listening to this album. They're like MGMT but actually rather good.

 

Should anyone actually get around to listening to the album, it's worth downloading 3 tracks from last year's EP too, namely 'Surrounded By Your Friends', 'Comfortable Comparable' and 'Rolling-Nectarine'.

 

  • 4 months later...

A video for "Realize It’s Not The Sun" has appeared, and apparently the album is finally out physically in the UK in February..

 

  • 3 months later...
  • 9 months later...
http://www.dingsme.info/avatar8.jpgDefinitely one of my albums of the year too. 'Sails', 'Same' and obviously 'No Love' are all fantastic.

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