This year is churning out a succession of disappointing
albums. A few years ago, I was under the impression that
Hundred Reasons were one of the great hopes of British
alternative music. I heard "Remmus", and was
instantly smitten by their jagged, electrifying emo-rock,
bolted underneath a unique sense of tunesmithery. Then
along came "I'll Find You", a monumental slab
of rawk with a hook you could use to reel in a lardy humpback
whale, all laid out in glorious sparkly crystal clear sound.
Ace.
And then the first album (Ideas Above Our Station) came out, and the
general consensus among the anticipating fans was "Oh - right". I hoped
they would do better next time.
I admit it, I was ready to be disappointed. After the first few spins, Shatterproof
Is Not A Challenge had failed to inspire me, and I prepared myself to reject
Hundred Reasons as has-beens and failures. Luckily for them however, I decided
to give it a lot more spins than I at first thought it deserved, and although
I still wouldn't say it was a blinder, I do think it's an improvement on their
first album and needn't be embarrassed to be in any halfway decent CD collection.
Hundred Reasons' main appeal these days is their sense of belief in and enthusiasm
for what they are doing, and their ability to communicate that to the listener.
Every song is banged out with heaps and heaps of passion, not to mention ability,
and this goes some way to making up for their lack of groundbreaking ideas -
and in any case, a groundbreaking idea isn't necessarily a good one. A good song,
however, is a good one, groundbreaking or not. And thus "What You Get"'s
thumping sing-along chorus, "Harmony"'s heartfelt harmonies and...
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