Hurry - Don't Look Back

 

Im Auto soll das neue Album von Teenage Fanclub laufen und es fehlt noch das passende Gegenstück, um die B-Seite der Kassette zu füllen? 

Dann empfehle ich, zu „Don’t Look Back“ von Hurry zu greifen. Energetischer Powerpop, sommerlicher Janglepop und melodiöser Indierock, der sich an den 90er Jahren orientiert und gut zum Frühwerk von Teenage Fanclub passt.

Das Album, welches thematisch die Tiefen des Verlusts einer langjährigen Liebe und die Höhgen des Findens einer neuen Liebe beschreibt, wurde übrigens nach einem 1995 erschienen Song benannt: „Don’t Look Back“ von Teenage Fanclub.

Hurry ist seit gut einem Jahrzehnt das Projekt des aus Philadelphia stammenden Matt Scottoline (Gesang, Gitarre), der das Album zusammen mit Rob DeCarolis (Schlagzeug), Joe DeCarolis (Bass), Justin Fox (Gitarre) und dem Produzenten Ian Farmer aufgenommen hat. „Don’t Look Back“ ist als LP (Translucent Purple with Blue Splatter Vinyl und Blue with White Splatter Vinyl) erhältlich.

 

Opening one's heart without suggesting a certain amount of self-pity is one of the risks of making an album like this, but on Don't Look Back, Scottoline is clearly aware of how much blame there is to go around and what was his fair share, and his sadness isn't treacly, it bears the ring of honesty and truth, and the clarity is effective. Along with a batch of great songs, Don't Look Back finds Hurry in excellent form in the studio; Scottoline and his bandmates fill the performances with great rock & roll energy and impressive instrumental interplay, and engineer and co-producer Ian Farmer is equally adept at documenting the crunch and sparkle of the guitars. If the phrase "power pop" sounds limiting to some, Scottoline and Hurry remind us how much you can say when you put those ingredients together, and Don't Look Back is their strongest, most resonant album to date.

(All Music)

 

The straightforward heartbreak that Don’t Look Back captures is the core of the record. It’s peppered with a healthy collection of details that are so familiar to anyone who’s been through a breakup. Scottoline waits for phone calls to be returned, talks things over and stares at his ceiling “inside [his] shitty bedroom.” Even with that forward-thinking title and “The Punchline,” a closing ode to moving forward the best you can, many of these songs still do emotional somersaults. One of the record’s most despondent lines––”Am I the one you still call baby?”––emerges on the album’s lead single, “Beggin’ For You.”

There’s a great moment on “Something More” where Hurry finds momentary transcendence. The drums and guitars drop out for a beat, Scottoline’s voice becomes slightly more dejected as he sings “I’ve waited a long, long, long time.” Those singled out vocals genuinely feel like an emotional breakthrough, in part because of how winningly they’re performed. Don’t Look Back is centered around that waiting—for something old to end or for something new to start. While Hurry have clearly internalized that the waiting is the hardest part, the band is beyond gifted at turning that uneasiness into wonderful pop rock.

(Paste Magazine)