The Hopefuls “Now Playing at the One-Seat Theatre” Review

Oftentimes when listening to an album, I listen for one song with an amazing hook or stellar beat and work backward, trying to give the rest of the album a shape in my head around that one singular hook or beat, using it as a measuring stick for the rest of the songs. If the one songs sticks out too much against the rest I usually decide it’s maybe just a fair album; if it’s just the best song in a batch of great songs, I usually decide I have just listened to a pretty good to excellent album. No such luck finding just one great hook on Now Playing at the One-Seat Theatre; there are too many to choose from, too many that get stuck on a loop in my head for hours or even days on end. This album seeped into my grey matter like that giant earwig in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn; Now Playing provoked far less screaming, however. It’s one of the most front-to-back enjoyable power-pop albums I have heard in years—probably since The New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema.

It’s been a long wait for The Hopefuls’ second album. During the three-year interim they, among other things, were threatened with litigation by the IOC for use of the word “Olympic” in their former moniker, all recorded at least one album with another band (Kid Dakota, N*E*R*D*, et al.) and guitarist Erik Appelwick departed to play with Tapes ‘n Tapes on a full-time basis. Somehow though, the giddy, shimmery, unabashed pop sound stayed the course and got into better shape (i.e. leaner and stronger with more stamina), and is now looking to take on any and all comers from the local circuit or elsewhere.

There is nothing inherently special about The Hopefuls’ sound. There are no grinding guitars, angular riffs or chunky, galloping basslines; but if tight, well-rounded, slightly sugary pop songs with great lyrics and even better hooks were kryptonite, Superman wouldn’t stand a chance. Last year, local outfit (and The Hopefuls’ labelmates) Aviette released a breakup album that was as heartbreaking to listen to as almost any I have encountered. On Now Playing, however, I found myself wishing for an increasingly awful, more horrible story to come next as it would almost surely mean another sparkling gem of a song. “Red Stain,” which is about lead singer/guitarist Darren Jackson’s heart literally being torn from his chest cavity is one of the album’s standout tracks and arguably the most danceable. While dancing to lyrics like “There’s a red stain on my jacket/it doesn’t take much to imagine, does it?” may seem odd at first, after a couple of listens it will seem odd not to be doing so. After parting ways with a partner, you can choose to wallow and second guess or you can celebrate; neither is the wrong choice, but one is definitely more fun.

Where Aviette’s Holly Muñoz decided to look back and dissect the minutiae of her failed relationship, here Jackson seems to have decided to give the mystery woman a giant middle finger and walk away as unscathed as a person can be by a bitter breakup; he seems to have faired only slightly better than “I’m doing OK.” You might feel a bit guilty when you find yourself enjoying this record at first, but by the end you’re sure to be secretly (or not so) wishing for Jackson to be involved in another soon-to-be-disastrous relationship. I hate to root for heartbreak, but when the result is an album as compulsively listenable as this one, I don’t really see how I have any other choice.

[Rview by guest contributor Pat O'Brien.]

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