Hallelujah Hell Yeah is the third album from Pittsburgh's String Machine. It feels good to be able to post something from a Pittsburgh band for some reason. Can you think of a band from Pittsburgh? I was struggling.
It's also good to be able to plug a record as fine as this one. Credit for bringing my attention to this goes once again to Darren Jones who has directed me towards so much excellent product on It Starts... over the last few years.
String Machine seem rather Nineties in terms of their inclinations. Madder Rose, Neutral Milk Hotel, the other Elephant 6 bands and Beck all came to my mind at various points and I could probably list some more fellow travellers in terms of the gritty, spinning sound they generate.
Anyhow, Hallelujah Hell Yeah has plenty of slacker charm and an anthemic rush driven by their multi instrumental approach, (strings, brass and pianos) and by spectral, otherworldly harmonies from David Beck and Laurel Wain.which brings up the other thing that they and the rest of String Machine remind me of. An equally righteous but more upbeat and less self-regarding Arcade Fire.
It's all incredibly intriguing on first play. Given the nature of this blog, I don't have time to dwell on records and play them as much as I'd like to once I've written about them on here. But Hallelujah Hell Yeah had me hooked on first spin and I'm fairly sure I'll be back to it on a regular basis over the coming weeks and months. It strikes me as a really special record. Thanks again Darren, and keep them coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment