Family Average: 4.1/7

Nothing says “rainy day blues” quite like some indie-pop straight out of Texas. So the family sat down (separately in their separate homes) to review Will Taylor and Charlie Martin’s second album under group name Hovvdy. If you’d like to listen as you read, the album is here on their Bandcamp.

See who was touched by the gloomy, mysterious sound and who was thinking “suck it up!”:

Ooo baby. Wavy and gloomy and so fucking right. Mmm. There is definitely a certain mood in which this album is exactly what you need.

I believe this album is not as simplistic as it seems on the surface, as it goes on the depth becomes more noticeable. “Thorough” as a track is very layered.

5.5/7 Melodic and pleasing to my ears and soul.

Best way to describe this album is to use the term “flat line”. If you’ve ever sat in a dorm room or apartment and heard guitar strumming and a droning of lackluster vocals I guess you’ll like this album.

It was like sitting at a red light waiting for something to happen. It never does. Most of the tracks sounded identical, droning on without purpose. I kept waiting to hear Dave Grohl scream lyrics or jam out power chords and it just never happened.

Not assaulting to the ears, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it again.

3.5/7

Hovvdy there, do you like feel sad sometimes? Everybody does! Some more than others. I am one of those people and boy oh boy did I have a field day with this album.

Only thing that was kinda bugging me was that the sounds seemed a little drowned out. I need the sad to shine, and its hard for it to do that behind all the fuzz. Anyway, this did not stop me from enjoying the album, seeing them live, and drunkenly storming the stage after the show to steal the set list (true story friends).

5.5/7

I think it’s funny that the songs are all so short, like Elvis Costello’s , yet they are the polar opposite of his energy.  I must admit, in this case I was kind of glad they were short because for the most part they were pretty sad.

I was hopeful when I saw the word “Sun” in a track title and was not disappointed. “In the Sun” and “Swing” were my favorite tracks. They were a little more upbeat and engaging than the others. “Cranberry” began like a slowed down version of a Blink 182 song but just didn’t have the staying power.

Please do not listen to this if you are sad! Stoned, maybe, but not sad because it could definitely push you over the edge.

2/7 Thanks for listening!

This was a lot of very sad music. I’d probably be more into it if I was feeling very sad.

I like when bands give off a more raw sound and Hovvdy definitely does that here. I enjoyed “Brave” and loved the lyrics on “Cranberry”…felt like a tiny poem.

But even I’m not this sad. Just cheer up kids, geeze!

4/7

I don’t like the trend in folk music where people think that they need to play an out of tune guitar with their voice breaking as if they’re on the verge of tears to make a sad song.

It seems like the album is all on the surface, with no genuine substance. I wouldn’t want to listen to again to try and find some.

3/7 Not badly produced, just bland.

I gotta admit, the album was kind of a drag for me. It just felt really amateur and played out. Maybe the levels need to be adjusted cause a lot of the time all the sounds were just jumbled together. And the droning, near-monotone vocals don’t do it any favors.

Every so often when a new song would start up it’d sound like it’d be going in a new direction. But once the song properly got going it was just more of the same each time. 

3.5/7 Don’t get me wrong I do like sad songs, but not when they’re so uninspired.