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Because every Hang Ups song I'd heard, on various mix tapes friends had sent me and so forth, had been without exception excellent, it surprises me that I hadn't gotten around to listening to more of their work. So I was pleased to see the new Hang Ups CD among the enormous pile of CDs Milk deity Josh sent me to review. The first few times I listened to it, though, it didn't really impress me all that much. It wasn't bad, mind you - but it was hardly earth-shattering. Then one day, I listened to the disc again...and hey! it was revealed in its true genius. Of course, that was because up until that point I'd been listening to the Hang Ups' alternative world evil twin CD (you can tell because the band members all sport goatees and kinky gold sleeveless tunics on the cover photos). The songs are arranged with lapidary care and precision, with instrumentation including harpsichord, moog, tack piano, trombone, harp, baritone saxophone, and lap steel. The last is played by Mitch Easter, who produces along with Don Dixon in their first full-album collaboration since R.E.M.'s Reckoning. They provide a cleanly articulated sound space for the Hang Ups' masterful arrangements. Songs display an aching, melancholy melodicism along with a Brian Wilson-like sense of unusual but winning chord sequences, and the lyrics are carefully observed vignettes of lives, loves, and social foibles - a sort of midwestern Kinks (the bands' names are even connotationally similar). The band stretches its mid-tempo lyricism with the chunkier rawk beats of "Party" and adds some rural heartache with the lap steel and country harmonies of "Blue Sky." So the album turns out to have been well worthy of my anticipation. Just be sure the CD's cover photo shows the band clean-shaven. |
