Posted on: July 29, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 1

Spokane – Little Hours / 2007 JagJaguwar / 10 Tracks / http://www.jagjaguwar.com/

Spokane offers listeners a melodic and sad album with their newest release Little Hours. It starts out with “Singing” which does a good job of giving the listener a taste of what they will hear throughout the entire album and has some neat nature noises which is a bonus to what is coming. “Minor Careers” doesn’t differ too much in tempo still giving you that feeling of despair that usually coincides with bad moments in life. If there is hope, it lies in the proles,” is the one song that could be played more then once by those by then end of this record who aren’t feeling so down that they never want to listen to music again, (I listened a good twenty times top to bottom, your condolence’s are welcome.)

Be warned though before you pick this up, it can be very monotonous and seem like the same song is playing over and over again. Tracks four (“Thankless Marriage”) and five (“Building”) seem like they’re there to fill space and bring nothing that we hadn’t heard in the first three tracks. But things finally pick up again…kind of. “Middle School” leads you into the second half of this ten track album and makes things a little bit better but don’t expect any guitar solos or yelping as the morose vocals continue to pound your ear drums. “Addendum” seems to come and go as if the songs purpose was never fully realized by the band and they threw it in for a lead into the next track—“These Things.”

As the whole of the album is concerned “These Things” would be the one song you played to get all the sadness in one fell swoop. “Leases and Promises” and “Tell Me” wrap up Little Hours making sure that if by now you aren’t puffy eyed or sleeping you will be by the end. Did Spokane make the right move by putting the two worst tracks at the end of the album? No, but this is of course my opinion. Although I think that once you have listened from start to finish, you will agree that they would have been better off somewhere in the middle where we could have forgotten about it much like all the tracks on this album and trust me I’m still trying to get them it out of my head. Wrapping it up Spokane’s – Little Hours is for those of us out there who are already miserable and should not be bought by anyone else.

Top Tracks: If there is hope, it lies in the proles

Rating: 3/10

[Reviewer: Kristopher]

1 people reacted on this

  1. Once you get out of high school you might realize there are other things to life besides Sammy Hagar and Green Day. Not all music is interested in keeping the party going. Try a little Arvo Part and get back to your reviewing in a few years. This record changed my life for the better.

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