The Hallelujah Ward
Everybody Swoons
*** out of *****
The debut full length release from the Milwaukee, WI based trio The Hallelujah Ward, Everybody Swoons, is a twinkling mix of indie rockers as the eight tracks presented here show a band tackling a few different sub genres while buzzingly moving forward.
The group, Mark Waldoch - guitar vocals, Dan Didier - drums, Paul Hancock - bass, shoot for a Broken Social Scene sound with splashes of shoegaze, post-punk and baroque pop mixed in.
The best effort on the album is the opener "Your Uncertain Shadow", a tune Waldoch wrote just after the death of Frightened Rabbit's vocalist and guitarist Scott Hutchison. The song deals with that as well as Waldoch's middle age worries via a bright intro, slapping drums, shimmering guitars, and swelling synths, resulting in a moving final product. Another top-notch offering is the motoring "Social Grace", a completely dynamic indie-pop adventure in the vein of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart that captures romance and heartbreak while dropping a Fitzcarraldo reference.
All the tunes presented here run long, and some editing would tighten up the album as songs regularly go past six minutes. One example is on "Crown" whose elongated repetitive synth laden intro and drawn-out finale dilute the middle sing-along indie-pop center from hitting harder. The post-punky "Diet Suicide" repeats the motif too long, and "The Ring of Brightest Angels, Around Heaven" tries to cram in too many ideas, however, album closer "The Back of the Line" goes for over the top pomp and circumstance and delivers in swirling fashion.
When the band brings in more of a shoegaze influence the results are mixed. The fantastic sounding drums and bass excellently drive "Manageable Oblivion" forward, but Waldoch's underwater/distorted guitar tone and odd "la-la-la" finale don't jive well. Much better is the dreamy/woozy floating of the languid "Nobody's Ghost" as the slightly fuzzy swelling tones all complement Waldoch's vocals winningly on the dramatic centerpiece of the album.
Everybody Swoons is a stout debut from the indie rock based The Hallelujah Ward as the trio try out glimmering, stretched out offerings that address the uncertainty of modern living.
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