Hood - Cold House

  by Chris Jones

published: 19 / 12 / 2001

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In a year where pop/rock music saw less play on my stereo than ever (this was a blinding year in d'n'b), one of my all time favorite bands came through not once, but twice. Earlier in the year, Hood gave us the EP 'Home is Where It Hurts' and revealed a somewhat different sound than what the previous two full lengths had offered. Continuing along this new path, Hood has created an album that blends their many musical styles together perfectly while also adding still some more new sounds along the way. The vocal delivery and overall tone of the songs carries on the mystery pop vibe that has been there since 'Cabled Linear Traction' came out in 1994. I'm never entirely sure what the lyrics are about and that's one of the reasons they always draw me in. They hint at something personal, possibly tragic, and at least important, but they never reveal everything. The vocals are similar in style to what we heard on 'Home is Where It Hurts', but different in a way that I find better. I don't get the Apples in Stereo feel on 'Cold house'. It's more like the earlier Hood style, but poppier. Musically, Hood have further refined the combination of the cinematic sound of their last two full lengths and the electro/dub/beats sound that has popped up here and there on their other releases. What this has led to is an album that is both quiet and energetic. Natural sounding and electronic. It is also an album that most first time listeners would find more engaging thantheir other albums 'The Cycle of Days and Seasons' and 'Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys'. And for those more familiar with Hood, the surprise of the album is the vocal contribution from Dose and Why? of the avant-hip-hop act cLOUDDEAD. When I heard early reviews mention that the album had "rap vocals", I was a bit scared of what I might hear. Fortunately, Hood seem to have good taste when it comes to hip-hop and my fears of some MC chatting all over the songs were unfounded. Fact is, I wouldn't mind hearing more from this collaboration in the future. Dose and Why? bring an abstract lyrical style that mixes very well with Hood's music, adding yet another color to their already broad palette. 'Cold House' just might be the type of album that makes Hood known to more than just the indie world. The merger of pop, hip-hop, and electronic elements on this album seem to be getting them more press than I remember from their previous albums and the accolades are well warranted. 'Cold House' blends together the sounds from Hood's past and moves them forward to some next level action without skipping a beat. And it looks like a nice benefit of all the good press is the first US tour by Hood, something i've been waiting for for a long, long time.

Track Listing:-

1 They Removed All Trace
2 You Show No Emotion At All
3 Branches Bare
4 Enemy Of Time
5 The Winter Hit Hard
6 I Can't Find My Britle Youth
7 This Is What We Do To Sell Outs
8 The River Curls Around The Town
9 Lines Low To Frozen Ground
10 You're Worth The Whole World

Label Links:-

http://www.dominorecordco.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DominoRecordCo
https://twitter.com/DominoRecordCo
https://www.youtube.com/user/DominoRecords
https://plus.google.com/+DominoRecords

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