Hoagie - Other Folks

 

I've been dying to tell you about this album for some time and trailed it with a couple of singles on the Listening To This Week Playlist. With the release upcoming and the album already available on Bandcamp, now is the time.

Hoagie is Portland Oregon's Dave Holgado and the Singer Songwriter and Multi Instrumentalist has gathered a group of fellow musicians to provide one of the best examples of 70s Pop Rock that has been released in recent times. 

Other Folks just oozes melody and hook ability and is yet another example of how playlists may be temporary, but an album is for life and this is an LP that should live in your head for a long time. It is just quality from the opener, Friends' Bands onwards.

Indeed that opener kicks in like 1978 has just dawned with its UK New Wave similarities to the likes of Rockpile, The Motors and Stiff Records. The song's sentiments chime with what IDHAS is about and if we wanted a song as a sort of Company anthem, it probably should be this.

Yet compare that to the addictive Indie Pop of You Ruined It and you realise you are about to embark on something special. Add in the West Coast Eagles Rock of Limitlessness, the Cat Stevens like Common Core Kids and the Power Pop of Notes From The Basement and you could just stand and applaud already and you are only half way through.

Bunch Bands is very very Wilco and I'm not sure if is a tribute to Jeff Tweedy or taking the piss out of him. I suspect is is a bit of both, but it is a great song with a splendid Brass arrangement and then there is the surprise closer, Bounce Around People.

It is treated as a sort of Hank Williams cover in all together now mode around the campfire. It could easily be a Broadway Show song and a marked contrast from everything else around it. It does however underline the love and humour that has gone into the album.

The performances from all are exemplary, never losing sight of the melody. Holgado's vocal suits the material and the period perfectly allowing the elders to reminisce and the youngers to lose themselves in the catchiness of it all. Other Folks is an absolute winner.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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