Listen: Hop Along - "Prior Things"

With their follow up their stellar sophomore record Painted Shut out next week, Philly indie rock quartet Hop Along have released "Prior Things", the third single and album closer from their upcoming album Bark Your Head Off, Dog. While first single "How Simple" continued very inline with what fans of Hop Along have come to expect of Frances Quinlan and crew in terms of straightforward composition with just the right amount of lyrical vagueness, "Not Abel" shook up the band's standard formula by presenting a song with distinct moving parts. "Prior Things" arrives to more or less split the difference between the two - continuing to use the strings that were first presented in the denouement of "How Simple" and instead introducing them right at the start before Quinlan even offers the track's first line. The strings are bright and spritely, conjuring the sunny, summer day where the song seems set to take place. Quinlan sings of a chance encounter - spotting a vacationer reading. Perhaps more so than any other song we've heard so far - Quinlan is the least explanatory. Her thoughts spill out of her, but they're much more like observations than judgments even as she places herself both inside and outside of the narrative. "You were on vacation, vacation means leave, means obliterate all prior things" Quinlan croons and it's the first instance of that meeting sidelining other motivations.

Quinlan's narrative is mostly concerned with her thoughts and feelings in this particular moment even as she tries and fails to understand the concerns of the other party. "What must happen in your mind when you create those silences - nevermind I don't want to see, it's got nothing to do with me" she offers. "Prior Things" is a bustling sprawl that sees Quinlan at a particular vulnerable moment as she ponders in idyllic string augmented tapestries just where she fits into everything. Quinlan drops listeners right into the thick of her thought process, establishing context first but quickly moving on from the external to her more internal conflict. Quinlan offers up a wealth of information, gradually but surely but makes no attempts to sort any of it for you. The listener becomes more emotional passenger than confidante, viewing the scenes from the safety of Quinlan recollection. Quinlan's never been a songwriter who offers conclusive "I feel" statements instead allowing her emotive vocals and stream-of-conscious style do much of the heavy lifting and music place setting. Ultimately, "Prior Things" succeeds because you don't needs to know the specifics. It's a song not only open to interpretation but a fair bit of projection and that makes it strangely universal.



Hop Along's third full length album Bark Your Head Off, Dog available April 6th on Saddle Creek Records. Pre-order is available now.     

Listen: Hop Along - "How Simple"

Well this is a welcome surprise. Despite the fact that Philly rockers Hop Along got a little playful in the revealing of their upcoming new album Bark Your Head Off, Dog through mysterious clues left via social media last week, I was still wholly unexpecting to get a taste of it so quickly. "How Simple", the album opener and first single from the upcoming album, is a quick, uncomplicated reintroduction to songwriter Frances Quinlan and the rest of her merry band. Quinlan, despite the immediacy open contained in her vocals, has never been a particular straightforward songwriter - preferring instead to have her subjects twist and turn in ways that are much more human than a direct narrative would. "How Simple" essentially finds Quinlan employing the same sense of delayed gratification as she subtly reveals the song's core subject: a nervous dategoer. But even though Quinlan prefers to gradually reveal a song's twists and turns, she's a little more explicit here. "Pale as a banshee sun - think I should stop checking myself out in the windows of cars when I can see my future in her pictures of relatives" Quinlan offers in a musical stage whisper. It isn't until after the second verse after the abstract chorus that the other shoe drops. "Don't worry, we will both find out just not together". It's the sort of reveal a songwriter might save until the end of a song but Quinlan offers it up readily and presses onward.

"How Simple" is a song that doesn't ever shift perspective even as it shifts in time and mood. The story has changed but Quinlan's knack for narratives that concern themselves with how one phrase can encapsulate a colossal moment and how a particular character might respond to that is a skill she's deployed since Hop Along's debut. The only difference is, with more songs/albums under their belt, it's easy to see the quiet genius in Quinlan's semi stream-of-consciousness songwriting. She offers clues in seemingly off-the-cuff statements are phrases and then after her reveals, moves on, to give power to not the reveal but the aftershock. "How Simple" is simple and sweet, a lovely examination of how one's own feelings/experiences can color a situation or shield you from an obvious truth. Nothing's ever simple in matters of the heart and Quinlan perfectly captures that both throughout in the song itself and in it's somewhat ironic chorus "How simple the heart can be frightens me". 



Bark Your Head Off, Dog, the third full length album from Hop Along is out April 6th on Saddle Creek. Pre-order is available now.

Listen: Hop Along - "Powerful Man"

Well this is somewhat embarassing. After falling in love with Philly rockers Hop Along through their fervent and powerful Shaking Through single "Sister Cities", I was eagerly anticipating their new record and yet somehow I completely missed that the quartet were all prepped to loose that record into the world. Painted Shut, the follow up to their debut record Get Disowned, is out in a mere couple days and I almost missed it completely. In fact it was an offhanded remark from a friend that made me realized I had essentially let Hop Along's current PR cycle pass me by.

 Better late than never they say though as in addition to "Sister Cities", Hop Along have offered up three other songs from their upcoming sophomore records in "Waitress", "Powerful Man", and "Texas Funeral". Hop Along are still built around singer/songwriter Frances Quinlan's distinctive scratchy vocals but there's a dexterity in its use that wasn't all that present on Get Disowned. Well not to the level it is in a song like "Powerful Man". Quinlan's lyrics have always been rooted in narrative with a slight surreal streak but on "Powerful Man", there's a softenness and restraint in Quinlan's delivery that rewards the eager listener. It's benches Hop Along's characteristic fervor for understated but unmistakably ear-catching pop rock moments that bely the song's darker lyric florishes. True to form - Quinlan's lyrics are just the right amount of sparse, emphasizing less what is being said but rather what isn't and just how Quinlan's singing it. Her "I just thought he looked like a powerful man" becomes less a statement of admiration and more of one of sardonic observation the more she repeats it.



Hop Along's sophomore album Painted Shut is out May 5th on Saddle Creek Records.

Listen: Hop Along - "Sister Cities"

My introduction to Philadelphia trio Hop Along came from none of other than fellow Shaking Through Session alum Jeff Silverstein of Secret Mountains fame. Despite knowing that Jeff really liked Hop Along for several months it took until he threw "Sister Cities" on a really great mix for MTV Hive that I actually got around to listening to them.

There seems to be some sort of unspoken rule of modern indie rock that if you're a lady singer/songwriter, your vocals have to be coquette-ish, siren-like, or just beautiful as hell. Well Hop Along's singer Frances Quinlan refuses to play that game. Her vocals alternate between a sort of dusky rasp that would lend itself towards pristine folk reveries and a punky growl both perfectly fitting for Hop Along's angular rock purr.

All the more, Hop Along bring a refreshing unconventionalness toward their songs - Quinlan's lyrics elongated, held, or hit empathetic for effect, all the while the track surges forward and gains in intensity and Quinlan's raw emotive power instantly raise the emotional stakes. "Secret Cities" pairs tight-knit grooves with an almost poetic narrative lyricism effectively delivered to create a charging little number elevated by Frances Quinlan's emphatic roar.  Here's hoping there's more to come from the Philly threesome and soon because "Secret Cities" is good old fashioned rock & roll gold