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BUY THE CD
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Question: When is your CD player not a CD player? Answer: When it's a time machine. If you want to turn your CD player into a time machine, just put a copy of Hellogoodbye's latest album in it. Why will this make your CD player a time machine? Well, mostly because this record draws something from the last three decades of pop music but, at the same time, makes each era sound relevant to today.
This is a bold approach, especially when it comes from a relatively unknown band that could have so easily chosen a more formulaic sound. The fact that they didn't certainly says something about where they're coming from, and probably where they're going as well, which (I hope) is on toward the recognition they deserve.
The album starts off firmly in the 80's, with “All Of Your Love” borrowing heavily from New Order's signature sound. “Here (In Your Arms)” carries on in much the same vein, and contains the most romantic lyric I've heard in a long time - 'I like where you sleep when you sleep next to me'. By track three we've jumped forward to the beginning of this decade and the end of the last, with “All Time Lows” sounding reminiscent of Blink 182. “Stuck On You” moves back to the 80's again, but this time it's more of a Talking Heads
type of thing. Skip forward a couple of tracks and it's time for another change of direction. Now we're in the 70's, with “Oh, It Is Love,” sounding very much like Burt Bacharach's “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” The rest of the album continues to seesaw through the decades, which, to start with, I found a bit disconcerting. Just when you think the record has decided what it wants to be, there's another change of direction and a move to a different time and place. After two or three listens however, the diverse styles start to give the whole thing a really endearing quality.
Hellogoodbye are wearing their heart on their sleeve and aren't scared to show exactly who their influences are - so it's hard not to like them. They make a refreshing change from all the angry guitar bands out there, the young men who seem to think shouting and jumping around can make up for a lack of talent.
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