Click here for QRO’s interview with Hooray For Earth’s Noel Heroux & Chris Principe
Click here for QRO’s review of Hooray For Earth at Cake Shop on February 24th, 2010
Music is littered with great artists who were too experimental, too out there, to be appreciated by all but a cult following. Some of those artists really only deserved the cult following, some not even that, but some were both so skillful and enjoyable that they really should have gotten wider listening. Today is no different, perhaps even more so, as it’s easier than ever to get your music out there, but also harder than ever to break through. Everyone is a niche band. But QRO’s vote for the band that should get more interest goes to Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boston’s Hooray For Earth, whose debut full-length True Loves isn’t like anything else, but is both quality and even beauty.
The unusual mix of tribal and choral on opener "Realize It’s Not the Sun" tells any unknowing listener right-out that this is an unusual album – but doesn’t put off that listener. The following "Last Minute" introduces three other new, and key, elements. There’s the sound of synths, prevalent throughout True Loves, as well as the processional rhythm. However, the secret weapon to "Last Minute", to True Loves, to Hooray For Earth, is the unexpected beauty. ‘Unusual’ usually means ‘hard to listen to’, at least on first spin, and/or at least to the casual ear, but Hooray For Earth’s unique style has a surprising beauty that emerges.
And Hooray For Earth continue to invent and impress throughout True Loves. Third track "Sails" sees more tech, but then the following title track take the tribal/choral mix of "Realize" and puts it to a procession – again with beauty appearing. There’s a distance to the more synth-y "Same", while "Bring Us Closer Together" goes bigger and brighter in its keyboards. The indietronic beats of "Hotel" are somewhat less memorable, compared to the rest of the record, but the subsequent "No Love" (QRO mp3 review) is the contrastingly most memorable, as it’s the most teched-out. And after the forty-second interlude "Pulling Back", True Loves closes pairing choral & atmospheric with processional drumming on "Black Trees".
Click here for photos of Hooray For Earth at Cake Shop in New York, NY on June 19th, 2009 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for QRO’s review of Hooray For Earth at Piano’s in New York, NY on April 12th, 2008
Not all unusual artists don’t get the recognition they deserve, even today – look at the success of Yeasayer (QRO live review) and Grizzly Bear (QRO live review). And if you were going to compare the unusual Hooray For Earth to anyone, it might be those two also-Brooklyn bands, but it would only be in certain elements (the tribal & synths of Yeasayer, the choral and beauty of Grizzly Bear). Hooray For Earth sound like no one else – not because no one else wants or should have that sound, but because no one else can do their sound. And it’s a great sound.
MP3 Stream: "Last Minute"
