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Following up their full-of-promise inaugural EP from last year, Hollywood Gossip’s debut full-length finds the band exactly where you would hope to find them. Dear as Diamonds displays an impressive leap in sonic maturity. Whereas You’re So Quiet was a pop purist’s delight, propelled by tunes like “Bicycle” and “Something’s Happening,” Dear as Diamond manages to rock a little more and strike a more reflective tone, but without losing that pop sheen. In progression, the album and band at this point are reminiscent of fellow local pop prospects the Sour Notes. The swooning vocal dives, the jangled guitars, and kick-stepped pep of percussion all feel wonderfully familiar and comfortable, yet surprising moments continually drive the quartet into some impressive new territories.
Opener “Sleepwalkin’” drops the kind of nostalgic angst buried in delectable rhythms that informs the entire album, but as the energy spikes and jumps and eventually erupts into the straining chant of the title, it’s clear that Hollywood Gossip are throwing everything they have into this album. And the payoff is worth it. “Summer Haze” is fevered and rolling, capped by a nicely executed guitar solo, while “Turn It Up” drives with a more deliberate and harder pulse. The production by Danny Reisch is top notch, not simply in polish, but more in the calculated balance that controls the songs, emphasizing Tyler Womack’s vocals with appropriate punch, shading the female counter from Cory Ryan, and letting the bass thump and then melt on tunes like “I Can Be Right.”
Standout track and lead single “Narcissus in a Window” hinges the album, Womack crooning and bopping with equal parts Colin Meloy and Morrissey. It’s the kind of pop that grabbed attention on You’re So Quiet, but here is highlighted even more by its surrounding tracks and the mid-song drum and bass breakdown. “Simon Says” follows up with equal passion, though more restrained, and lets Ryan finally emerge briefly in the spotlight.
The backside of the album seems to mine down deeper into darker and more disillusioned sentiments, or at least the pop gloss becomes somewhat more inoculated over the course of the twelve songs. But it’s also where the album gets the most interesting, with the surprising demo-ish recording turn of “Out of My Depth,” marking the pivot. As Womack strums alone on his guitar, he manages to pull off lines like “redolent with the dreams we had before,” until the final salvo of “fuck this place, we’re all leaving” leads into the burst of “Worst Day” and sets course for the closing tunes.
The supreme triumph of the album lies in the penultimate, 7:00 minute castigation of “Death of the House Party,” which seems to be the getting older and more disillusioned counter-position of “Something’s Happening” from their EP. Contorting through an epic narrative, the tune bemoans the loss of a scene aesthetic as much as an innocence and youth: “You tell me that the coolest kids are hanging downtown, and you would rather hit the Beauty Bar rather than a run down house,” Womack warbles, charging into the realization that “We come for DJs not for bands, and we hate this scene, we can’t stand it.” If “Death of a House Party” throws down the gauntlet on a jaded music scene lost of its optimism expressed on “Something’s Happening,” the album at least doesn’t leave us hanging on that miserable note. Closer “All That I Want” offers farewell through a stripped down love song with Womack singing to his muse as she leads him free of the scenester hell like Beatrice.
Taken as whole, Dear as Diamonds refuses to be easy, even when it goes down the most smoothly. Hollywood Gossip are pushing themselves forward, which means a lot of evident growing pains that come with figuring out what they want and where they want to go. Yet even in experimenting around the edges musically, it’s clear that the band is making the most of the confusion and ambiguity by tackling it head on and producing an excellent debut.
Mp3 from Dear as Diamonds:
Narcissus In a Window
Websites:
Myspace
