Title: You'd Prefer an Astronaut
Artiste: Hum
Genre: Alt-Rock/Shoegaze
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: bob
Expectations: I usually expect bob's recs to wow me. He hasn't done so well in recent times so here's hoping for a change in fortunes.
1. Little Dipper:Very powerful, almost post-rock opening before the vocal comes in, quite low and drawled, quite dreary if I'm honest. Music is good though.
2. Pod: Backwards masking? Hmm. Nice bassline. Song's a little raw for me. Yeah, not wild about this. Guitar bit at the end is good, but too late to change my mind at this point.
3. Stars: Seems this was a single, and more, a hit single. Do I know it? Of course not. Sounds nice though, very laidback ... until that guitar riff and now I think it's going to pick up ... oh. It didn't. Not yet anyway. Well, wait: kind of. Yeah, was not that impressed with that.
4. The suicide machine: Seems again to start laidback and low-key. Yeah this is nice. The sort of lazy, almost disinterested vocal works well here.
5. The very old man: This is very nice, even if I'm straining to hear the vocal at all. Really acoustic to the max.
6. Why I like the robins: Nice mixture of soft low-key and harder exploding guitar work here.
7. I'd like your hair long: Pleasant upbeat song, but I'm not gone on it to be honest. Give it an Orange.
8. I hate it too: Yeah, this is a decent rocker.
9. Songs of farewell and departure : Lovely little laidback closer.
End result: I can't say I was blown away, to be honest. Some good tracks, some not so good. Didn't really see anything that terribly different about this album, but I may have missed something. For now...
So, Love or Hate? I think a
Like is the best I can do.