| Hal's debut album, a simply fantastic piece of work, is one of the best debut pure pop albums ever made. |
|---|
Hal
s/t
Rough Trade (2005)
Holy kindred spirits, these guys are wired like heritage pop survivors in a mixed up, shook up, crazy musical landscape that shuffles the deck so thoroughly you can't tell the genres without a program. Lead vocalist and guitarist David Allen loves the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, and George Gershwin; keyboardist Stephen O'Brien's influences range from the Band to Louis Armstrong; and bassist Paul Allen digs the Everly Brothers, the Kinks, and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions. Somehow, their music comes out sounding like it belongs in another decade (take your pick). Fancy that.
Hal is all about the song, and these songs, every last one of them, simply bristle with heart and soul and they speak to you, if melodic pop is your thing. Channeling their influences with overwhelming charm, the brothers Allen and cohorts swing and sway their way into your consciousness. Their debut album, a simply fantastic piece of work, is one of the best debut pure pop albums ever made.
David Allen and Stephen O'Brien's songs are arranged like all great works of art must be, with great care and imagination and singular vision. They can turn out the classic, hitmaking song--"Play the Hits" is this inaugural long-player's track number two, out-of-the-park home run, its insanely catchy chorus ingrained in the listener's mind on first play. Inventive background vocals, and a frankly chillingly-good middle-eight, ensure that this one will bowl them over again and again.
The majestic "I Sat Down" manages to sound check Kate Bush, of all people, and Brian Wilson (in the orchestration and the middle-eight). Harmonies are always out front, atop a seductive melody and a sumptuous aural landscape. That's Hal, too--working with seductive melodies at the ready, heralding the chops to deliver those melodies in a truly accomplished, spectacular way.
"My Eyes are Sore," a spectacular tour-de-force, with its changing tempos, its nod to Supertramp's harmony background vocal style, and its encapsulation of the many, varied characteristics of Brian Wilson's Smile, is nothing less than a grand statement, absolutely in a class all by itself. The country shadings of "Satisfied" are a terrific showcase for David Allen's sweet vocals; the classic pop structure of the song is awesome. The tremendously affecting "Keep Love as Your Golden Rule" is also classically styled, mixing singer-songwriter verses with poppy choruses to great effect.
And so on. Hal knows how to spread the wealth, paying tribute to their influences and coming up with a unique sound that is more than the sum of its parts, although these parts are pretty fantastic. And so is Hal.
Alan Haber
August 7, 2005
Go to: Hal