Artwork
by Odandiee
OFFICIAL: http://www.therealhooksband.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/therealhooks/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/therealhooks/
Written
by Bradley Johnson, posted by blog admin
As
far as flawlessly crafted power pop goes, The Real Hooks are the real deal.
They bring a masterful command of popular song’s fundamentals, an amusing sense
of humor that never comes off as gratuitously sophomoric, and obvious musical
talents keeping everything afloat from the first note onward. They’ve built a
well-deserved reputation as a winning recording and live unit since their debut
a few years ago and have taken all the necessary steps to expand on that
initial strong showing. Their family bonds have produced much of the band’s
material until recently when they’ve started collaborating with outside
songwriters in an attempt to reach an even broader audience than before. It has
enriched their songwriting as well – the new single “Damn You” features all of
the aforementioned signature elements in the band’s sound, but it goes a step
beyond and sports the high end polish that working with decades long veterans
of the music world can provide.
The
energetic, freewheeling musical character of this song can win over new coverts
on its merits alone. It’s tempered in all the right ways however. A band more
blindly eager to impress might have played this at an even faster clip,
bleeding any hint of nuance out of it, but The Real Hooks achieve a
high-stepping swing that makes other elements of the performance all the more
contagious. The song’s melodic virtues are ostentatious, but they are quite
real. The band’s songwriting has specialized in direct, uncomplicated melodic
lines since their debut and this aspect of their presentation hasn’t changed.
It’s further enriched by the strength of the singing, substantive harmonies,
and a vocal melody that accentuates the humor of the song.
It’s
a level of humor that can get over with young and old alike. Despite the expletive
in the title, this is never an obscene lyric and, instead, has a lightly
sarcastic edge much more intelligent than what we are used to hearing in this
genre. The vocal phrasing is confident, loose, and makes great use of the
dramatic possibilities in the lyric without ever laying it on too thick. Like a
delicate ballad, success and failure with a song like “Damn You” depends much
on how much muscle the singing and music exert. If it’s all about the notes you
don’t play, The Real Hooks strike an entertaining and compulsively listenable
balance on this new single. It goes beyond family though. These are clearly
sympathetic musicians with a crystal clear idea of what this band should be
doing and how to get there. Such chemistry is rare under any context. “Damn You”
ratchets up the stakes with its deft turns of humor and it’s a performance and
song capable of being enjoyed by a wide swath of the listening public.
Grade:
A
No comments:
Post a Comment