Elly Roberts reviews
Hal: Hal
Distributed by
Rough Trade
- Cat.no: RTRADCD160
- Released: April 2005
- Rating: 8/10
Think Beautiful South and Beach Boys and you get Hal.
As a debut album, this rates very highly. Bubbly summer releases don’t come
much better than this, because it’s full of radio friendly pop ditties to keep
the seasonal feel-good factor floating along.
BS have had an immense influence on this quartet comprising brothers Dave and
Paul Allen (vocals/guitar and vocals/bass respectively), Stephen O’Brien (keyboards)
and Stephen Hogan (drums).
What A Lovely Dance and Keep Love As Your Golden Rule are right
out of their songbook, with more than a bucket full of the BB’s sandy anthens.
They cite a host of luminaries as influences: Harry Nilsson, The Beatles,
Donovan, Bert Jansch, Buffalo Springfield, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, which
makes for a potent cocktail of indigenous but commercially acceptable crossover material.
Quirky 70s west coast FM pop eventually kicks in particularly in the middle
section sandwiched between The LA’s/Danny Wilson type gushes. The Nilsson effect
follows on I Sat Down with the bonus of some deft mandolin.
Overall there’s an undeniable graceful elegance about it’s content and
presentation, which has a winning formula for years to come. These guys are no
one hit wonders.
Just the album for your hols.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
