Review Summary: The Hush Sound do a fairly decent job of blending pop music with creativity, something that is lacking in pop music these days. Certainly not the greatest follow up to 2006's Like Vines, but interesting and different nonetheless.
It's rare that I even give pop music a second look. The vast majority of what's played on the radio absolutely disgusts me, so I make a point of veering away from anything pop-related. However, last year, after listening to a Panic! At the Disco album (and hating it), I decided to check out the other bands on the Fueled by Ramen label just to give them a chance, and I came across The Hush Sound. Because there isn't a review posted for this album yet, I decided to post one myself.
Goodbye Blues is a fairly diverse album for a pop band, containing songs with very different tempos, alternating between male singer Bob Morris and female singer Greta Salpeter. As has been the theme with their previous two albums, organic piano is used throughout, but certainly not overused. The warm sound of a piano really adds to their music and gives it a full sound, without coming across as aural filler.
This album is much different than their previous effort, Like Vines. Greta's voice has changed dramatically; it seems to have more depth and tone. With that being said, Like Vines was definitely my favourite between the two. However, Goodbye Blues does have its strong points and deserves to be recognized as pop music that's not just over-produced and distributed to the masses for consumption.
The first track, entitled "Intro" (how appropriate), is apparently a demo that Greta recorded all on her own to be later turned into a real song for the album. Somehow this original demo ended up on the album, and it sets the mood for the album quite well. It's just Greta and a piano, doing what she does best.
Track two, and the first single from the album, "Honey," has more of a rock feel to it than anything they've previously done but still maintains their happy-go-lucky sound. It's a very radio friendly song and definitely appropriate for a single.
Next is the wildly catchy "Medicine Man," my favourite song on the album. The Hush Sound's music isn't entirely complex, but this song definitely showcases their talents as musicians more than any other song I've heard. The bass plays a big part in this song, which is unusual in radio friendly pop-rock music. The drums pound away during the verse, then the chorus comes in with guitar and piano.
An interesting piano riff starts off track four, "Boys Are Too Refined." A lot of Greta so far on this album, we have yet to hear much from Bob aside from throwing in the occasional backup line or harmony here and there. Not much else to say about this song, it's catchy and happy, really nothing new.
The first ballad on the album is track six, "Hurricane." Greta's voice and a piano take up almost the first minute and a half of the song, which is welcome, but this song seems to sort of plod along relentlessly and is quite repetitive. I won't call it filler, but it's close.
Bob makes his first appearance in lead vocals on the next track, "As You Cry." This song is a stinker. Bob's vocals were way more interesting on the previous albums. The chorus is catchy but the rest of the track is absolutely forgettable, with the exception of some of the lyrics: "After every fight we always wonder what we're fighting for/Beat me up and mark me, yeah, you stole me but I am not yours." Not exactly the deepest of music but interesting nonetheless. Given that, I absolutely will call this track filler.
Next is an instrumental interlude called "Six." One of the most instrumentally interesting tracks on the album given that there are no vocals.
"Molasses" comes right after the interlude and is really just melodic pop silliness. Nothing extremely appealing to me here, I would even go so far as to say it's more filler.
The ninth track is "That's Okay" and another ballad. More Greta and a piano for the first minute or so. Their ballads on this album seem slightly formulaic, and this track really is no exception. The lyrics in this song are quite good though, I'm not usually a sucker for love songs but I like this.
The strongest Bob-lead song on this album, "Not Your Concern," is next. The only thing I don't like about this song is that the same guitar seems to be used on this song that is on, well, every other song on the album that has a rock style guitar. It is however nice to have a song on the album that has no trace of Greta; it showcases the band's ability to transcend pop formulaicness when it wants to. I could see this song being a single.
"I can love you much better, if you can't see it you're blind" is a line from the chorus of "Love You Much Better," track 11. I love the way this song sounds, the acoustic guitar and piano together combined with Greta's vocals make this song great to listen to.
"Hospital Bed Crawl" is the next track and certainly not one that should have followed the last. It's a slower-paced song with Bob on lead vocals, and as with "As You Cry," some of the lyrics are the only thing that gives this song any redeeming qualities. More filler.
Closing out the album is "Break The Sky," Greta's vocals sound smokey and hazy here. Piano and acoustic guitar once again are prevalent, and the bass can be heard quite well. Not a bad song, but not great either.
Overall, The Hush Sound do a fairly decent job of blending pop music with creativity, something that is lacking in pop music these days. Certainly not the greatest follow up to 2006's "Like Vines," but some interesting songwriting and something that's different than the majority of what's out there these days.
