Mom’s Basement Records – 6 October 2023
A charmingly anachronistic soundtrack to a trip down memory lane
They might just be the best thing out of Nebraska, but The Young Hasselhoffs have been brewing their brand of melodic rock n’ roll in Omaha for decades, carefully crafted and as unpretentious as their birthday suits. Meshing melody and harmony with simple yet seductive psalms and a commitment to consistency, yet finding a way to make each album undeniably unique. Dear Departed has the greatest degree of experimentation and somehow still sounds the same. They’re far from reinventing themselves, it just feels like they’re continuing to age gracefully.
The curtain drops as the opening credits roll somewhere between Billy Joel and the Buzzcocks and, in an alternate universe, produced by Brian Wilson (they actually recorded at The Blasting Room with Andrew Berlin just for the record) with “Hold Me Now.” A lonely voice accompanied by piano introduces the album before being relieved by the rhythm section which progresses into a palm muted second verse with intermittent reverb on the vocal, a stutter step on the snare, and a synth buried in the background. Followed by “It’s Been Years” which brings back memories of Masked intruder sans satire with soft harmonies mildly and overdriven downstrokes, there’s a fantastically fatalistic feeling as the DJ drops the beat into “Dear Departed,” the record’s first single and title track. Is it a nod to Stanley Houghton? With a touch of Teen Idols, it’s a catchy cracker with a simplistic lead line layered underneath. A little like The All Brights with a horn section! I can see this in the opening sequence of a hit show from the seventies. Strange, I know, but it’s the connection I can’t help but make.
Deviating just a bit, “Enjoy Your Part” is darker and more mysterious initially, opening with a slightly sullen sense of foreboding like something straight out of a spaghetti western, swapping the bit of brass for a string section while they open the shutters and throw up the sash, letting the sunshine of the chorus in. Which leads to the a church organ that slowly creeks in on “Something Wicked” with a nod to Ray Bradbury or maybe it’s William Shakespear’s Macbeth? It’s grungy and slightly more guttural with downstrokes and drawn out vocals but takes a more modern dramatic electro pop turn with a dynamic change, before another momentary appearance from the symphonic elements, but soon swapped back for more synth. It’s like a sonic identity crisis with one foot in the 80’s.
On the other hand “Beautiful Annabel Lee” begins with a bright acoustic contribution complete with medieval mobility and a salute to one of literature’s more prolific poets. It’s like if Tony Sly was a Traveling Wilbury touring with The Beach Boys while “You Belong To Me” the second single, has a slight swing that reminds me of The Monkees with oohs and ahhs, a trumpet that traces the vocal melody, and less overdriven guitars. T’is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all...
“McKibben’s Grove” has the most power pop appeal and I know I keep veering into vintage television references but I can’t help but picture Danny Bonnaducci making a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch. Once you hear it can’t be unheard. It should, however, come as no surprise from a band whose namesake is snatched from a certain Baywatch heartthrob. Either way this isn’t the only one that seems right at home in the opening sequence of a sitcom. They breeze through “I Hear You’re Here” which feels a little funky with more syncopation in the snare and another bit of brass finishing strong with “Still Got Time,” one last orchestral offering. It’s a bit like The Bouncing Souls meets Bach. Way more classical tinged pop than punk but builds into something beautiful. Rising and falling, crescendo and decrescendo. Dramatic and dynamic it feels like it might be found in a feature film by Disney? Sorry, I just can’t let it go…
Littered with literary references it’s refreshingly creative and more cerebral than some of their punk rock counterparts. Coincidence? Can’t be, but each song has a little something different, like a collection of poems approached from the perspective of a storyteller. I hope they’re searching for the sync licensing aspects of distribution because these songs belong on a screen. Their take on pop punk is anything but generic and invites many an influence from outside the genre as well. Marvelously melodic, even operatic at times, it’s more mature in comparison to Life Got In The Way but maintains a degree of continuity in songwriting with all the guitar driven narratives and heavenly harmonies that define their musical identity while exploring the periphery of their personality through added instrumentation and the scratching of an intellectual itch. We all relate to music in our own subjective way but, to me, this has been the soundtrack to the dying breath of my summer.
Jerred Lazar is a make believe musician and wannabe writer attempting to survive in Washington DC