
Hotel Hugo – Wild Animals
Nobody buys chocolate to taste something that’s sour, bitter, or unpleasant. I mean, of course, some do, but those looneys we ought not to concern ourselves with or provide any encouragement. Just the same, regular people don’t buy tickets to a show to be made to feel miserable, don’t go on holidays to get rained on (unless they’re visiting London), and don’t fall in love factoring in the risks of getting their hearts broken.
That’s the way that a lot of folks feel about music, too. They don’t want to spend their time, or their money on tunes that make them feel even more confused about life. They don’t want to waste time on music that they might not like. They’d rather know what they’re getting and have it be something that without fault, makes them feel happy, energised and whistling along. Populist or not, power-pop aims to do just that.
But good intentions can’t always be translated into solid action. When it comes to power-pop, you need musicians capable of coming up with the melodies and able to summon the sunshine onto the recording itself. This is what Hotel Hugo does really well on the new single “Wild Animals.” Try as they might, the musicians won’t be able to convince you that they’re miserable existentialists who are disappointed with life. Nah, they’re looking for endless Summers and non-stop flirtatious affairs. It seems to be working for them as Hotel Hugo does produce the sounds that make you feel good instantly. Many people wouldn’t ask for more.
Cathedra Tessera – Source
There used to be a lot more rock music writers back when you couldn’t really describe what rock music was. Back then, it was all about how it was supposed to make you feel. Musicians would make grunting noises when comparing their sound to that of a different band. Fans would wax poetically about the importance of playing one album instead of another before going out on a Saturday night.
Music meant more when it was harder to explain and when “experts” needed to be called in to try and make sense of it. AC/DC wasn’t about the riffs or vocals but about the way it all moved together. Just as well, My Bloody Valentine’s sound wasn’t merely about feedback and about spending endless hours in the studio. It was about creating a sound so lush and sensual that it felt like an immediate, passionate embrace each time you heard it.
Cathedra Tessera’s “Source” is the kind of music designed to trick you into thinking you can reach out to touch it. Sure, it’s easy on the ears, and you can even, probably take it apart and analyze it from a theoretical point of view. But that’d be a waste of time, really. “Source” is an illusion and a wonderful one at that. It takes it less than 3-minutes to convince you that you’re being kissed on the forehead by the angels themselves while you’re helplessly drowning in a river.