2006, Rock Ridge Music
“Some albums smack you right over the head, strutting their stuff straight out of the speakers, Hymns' Brother/Sister isn't one of them, its many charms are much more subtle than that. The quartet's debut is not a grandiose album, but it is a glorious one, the type one returns to time and again.
The first thing one notices is the luminescent quality of the music -- all the songs positively glow, the more rocking numbers in bright colors, the more laid-back in pastel shades. Then there's the energy, not adrenaline drenched, but with a joie de vivre and a breeziness that wafts up and infuses the entire set. Next, the fabulous double-guitar work looms into view.
Brian Harding and Jason Roberts have been playing together since grade school and it shows, their riffs and leads flawlessly intertwining, gracefully switching roles until they make a nonsense of the terms rhythm and lead guitar.
As supple as they are subtle, the pair blur genre lines along the way, but in the end, their North Carolina roots inevitably show, all those years picking away on the porch shining through. Behind them, the equally subtle rhythm section gently powers the songs. To call Hymns' music {Southern rock} would be a misnomer, not with numbers like the pumping title track, the dreamy C'Mon, C'Mon, the {alt-pop} flavored First Time, the punky Power in the Street, or the dynamics laced almost alt-rocker Stop Talking in their repertoire.
Magazine may be country-fried, but its in a Rolling Stones sort of way, and besides, what Southern rocker ever wrote a song as light-hearted and infectious as Friends of Mine?
There are at least six songs vying for singles status within, perhaps simultaneously, as they could all be aimed at different markets. And that's the beauty of this set, its many shadings creating an aural rainbow, magnificent in its incandescence.” ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide
The first thing one notices is the luminescent quality of the music -- all the songs positively glow, the more rocking numbers in bright colors, the more laid-back in pastel shades. Then there's the energy, not adrenaline drenched, but with a joie de vivre and a breeziness that wafts up and infuses the entire set. Next, the fabulous double-guitar work looms into view.
Brian Harding and Jason Roberts have been playing together since grade school and it shows, their riffs and leads flawlessly intertwining, gracefully switching roles until they make a nonsense of the terms rhythm and lead guitar.
As supple as they are subtle, the pair blur genre lines along the way, but in the end, their North Carolina roots inevitably show, all those years picking away on the porch shining through. Behind them, the equally subtle rhythm section gently powers the songs. To call Hymns' music {Southern rock} would be a misnomer, not with numbers like the pumping title track, the dreamy C'Mon, C'Mon, the {alt-pop} flavored First Time, the punky Power in the Street, or the dynamics laced almost alt-rocker Stop Talking in their repertoire.
Magazine may be country-fried, but its in a Rolling Stones sort of way, and besides, what Southern rocker ever wrote a song as light-hearted and infectious as Friends of Mine?
There are at least six songs vying for singles status within, perhaps simultaneously, as they could all be aimed at different markets. And that's the beauty of this set, its many shadings creating an aural rainbow, magnificent in its incandescence.” ~ Jo-Ann Greene, All Music Guide
Tracklisting
Disc 1
| 1 | Magazines |
| 2 | Brother/Sister |
| 3 | Friends Of Mine |
| 4 | C'mon, C'mon |
| 5 | Power In The Street |
| 6 | Scenery Glow |
| 7 | First Time |
| 8 | Stop Talking |
| 9 | It's A Shame |
| 10 | Starboat |
| 11 | Town |
Customer Reviews
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