Let me stay away from controversy this time, The Who-siers? (The Trick To Life - The Hoosiers)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	The Trick To Life - The Hoosiers
Date:	26/10/07 (479 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Catchy, likeable, fun, good mix

Disadvantages: Couple of weak links

With bands now a days we seem to know their songs before we know the band, this is a prime case of what has happened with The Hoosiers, who released their debut album "The Trick to life" this very CD I'm reviewing quite recently and yet despite having had their first single released originally just through the net ("Worried about Ray") reaching #15 on downloads alone (peaking at #5 when the single was released on CD). We'd all heard the song and it'd got into all our heads despite many of us asking who they were.

Well The Hoosiers are a british-seweedish band (members are from Exeter, Reading and Stockholm) and have currently released 2 singles (Goodbye Mr. A beign the second and having currently peaked at #4 in the UK charts).
How did The Hoosiers form from such an eclectic difference of backgrounds?
Well 2 of the members were School buddies who went to America and started to compile some material for an album (whilst both were offered scholarships for american football). Upon arriving back in England they found the third member of the band working as a studio engineer and that, as the rest as they say, is history.

Who are the members?
Irwin Sparkes (vocals, guitar, yodelling)
Martin Skarendahl (bass)
Alfonso Sharland (drums)
And from the inlay booklet:
"Percussion-You mum", so shout out to my mum.
What sort of genre are they?
The band have gone on record as saying they want their songs to be "more than just boy meets girl after a night on the lash" and have a somewhat indie pop/indie soft rock/fun feeling indie feeling to them overall, with soem variations (as spoken about in more detail in the actual review).

Now onto the album, the debut release of The Hoosiers (released on Monday 22nd of October, 2007) at a sale price of £7.99 from Morrisons (which they had immediately gone and put this as their #1 album of the week), opens with their first single "Worried about Ray".
the track is a wonderfully catchy up tempo title that was my whole reason for gettign the album, though oddly it was my brother (who has such a god awful taste in music I swear were unrelated at times) that actually introduced me to them via this track. The songs feeling of up tempo music (primarily keys), a juxtapostion of lyrics which seem to tend towards a slightly unhappy theme and despite hearing two stories of what the track is about (worried about a friend in general and a track about the American director Ray Harryhausen) the song just seems a little like the lyrics and music classh into such a catchy little thing that you don't care. Irwins vocals seem sublime for the track and seem like they were almost made for each other (well it's likely the track was made for his vocals but thats not the point). A wonderful opening to the album, with a fun feeling to the track that makes you think of The Zutons a little bit (if your my age) or The Turtles if your a fair bit older. 9/10

The second track is "Worst Case Scenario", which keeps to a similar feel of mellow lyrics but uptempo music and vocals that keep your feet tapping and your head nodding. The track does have more variation in it's lyrics overall than the previous track, however this does lead to a loss of the catchy "odd pop" feel of their better know tracks which is a slight shame as it was the "odd pop" feel that sold the album to many fans. 7/10
"Run rabbit run" follows and again has a dark edge (that becomes a somewhat apparent theme throught the album lyrically), the dark edge does lead to soem wonderful imagery throught the track and despite the much slower tempo the track holds it's self togetehr brilliantly well and shows the band can do moody. Nearing the end of the track Irwin decides to turn all Jeff Buckley on us with waining vocals that slide through the notes and as a huge Buckley fan I'm impressed to see his memory hasn't been forgotten. This sliding vocals does show that Irwin's vocals have much more of range than some contemporary artists such as the Kaiser Cheifs Ricky Wislon. 8/10

"Goodbye Mr A" sounds a fair bit like the opening track and is another nod towards american pop culture (or rather not "pop") the video and lyrics are about the comic book hero Mr. A. (created by Steve Ditko) (Mr .A. Is not to be confused with Captain America, as some wikipedia articles mention).
The song is about the comic's lack of popularity ("Goodbye" as in bye bye, to the character) and simple way of looking at things as either right or wrong ("But no human touch
If life is subtraction\Your number is up\Your love is a fraction\It's not any more" and "So busy showing me where i'm wrong
You forgot to switch your feelings on/Oh-Oh-Oh/So so superior, your not"). The happy up tempo music and Irwins voice really do hide this little bit of a trivia fact fest for the listener, as the listening i too bust tapping their feet and singing along. 9/10
The album then goes back to the darkness musically and lyrically with "A sadness runs through him", and just as I'm thinking the band are fun they come along with this complete ball crusher of an emo title. Lyrically one of the most superiour tracks on the album, despite losing the catchability of many of the previous tracks and almost sounding like a different band. Again it shows the variations Irwin's capable of going into vocally in such an amazing fashion that we ned to remember these aren't well repspected, multi album artist's but a some what rookie band. The mellowness to the song does allow you catch your breath and admire their brilliance rather than continue tapping your foot at the crazy speeds of some of the previous tracks. 8/10

"Clinging on for life", damn these titles are starting to depress me a little bit :'(. The opeing few chord still catch me out and I start singing "Hey their Delilah" (The recent Plain White T's hit) despite there not really being all that much of a similarity. A soft melancholy seems to have overlooked this song musically and given Irwin a ground with which to again showcase his vocal talents and range as he uses such a smoothness in his performance that is so rarely found in modern pop these days and again shows the talent and potential scope of this bands future. 9/10
"Cops and robbers", goes back to the tried and tested fun filled romps that the band have released (so I'd guess this will be their next single), this cracker of a song that probably is the best track on the album slaps your across the side of the face and says "Oi mate, were really a fun band, honestly". A song that throws visual imagery of a comedy cop chasing a robber and a musical resemblance to The Cure classic, "Killing an arab" which is not a bad thing to do. A ctahcy, fun, fast, silly song that grabs your be the hand and cuffs you into listening to it right through, and if you don't don't sing...well...your loss. 10/10

"Everything goes dark" another track where the potential to turn into emo's is rather evident and is lyrically one of the most creative, and is somewhat reminiscent of HIM (His Infernal Majesty, a scandanavian "Love metal" band) and again the bands variation is music is evident as the band goes from fun, to The Cure like darkness, to HIM and with a little splashing of Jeff Buckley. Though it does sound reminiscent of HIM it doesn't quite have the dark atmospheric deep sound they are known for and it does feel like the track is a little bit empty. 7/10
"Killer", a brooding track that again forces memory's of The Cure into your head even though Irwin's voice is nothing like Robert Smiths the track wouldn't totally feel misplaced on a Cure album. The lyrics are probably the best on the disk and are totally sublime which when put with Irwins voice creates an amazing track and one of the best new songs I've heard all year (had to put "new" in there due to hearing Matthew Jays album this year). Songs like this need to be heard to believe how awesomely put together they are and with a chorus you have to love listening to, this and cops and robbers easily show what the band could become. 10/10

"The trick to life", sadly this song started in a way that threw Busted straight into my head (=/ damn), before the percussion kicks in (Charlie Simpson isn't fit to hold Alfonos's Jock strap, to parapharse the great Larry Holmes) as the song swiftly leads into fun indie rather than "punk-pop-crap" with a catchy and semi humourous lyrical hook. Despite this it isn't upto the standards of many of the albums tracks. 7/10
"Money to be made" (evidentally not by gambling -_-), feels like a typical end of album track, slow, melancholy and rather lyrically simple. Sadly the song never really seems to take off and go anywhere, however the simple string backing does bring back a few memories of the amazing Nick Drake, the track doesn't save it's self on these graces. A poor ending to the album...6/10

...or is it? The album has a hidden track "The Feeling You Get When" is a rather odd concoction of sounds and seems to try to over-use effects and is very experimental, using brass (trumpets?) and distancing to give the song a really unconvential and original feeling to it. Seems to be more of an added extra than a serious extra track to be honest. 6/10
Overall a good mixture of tracks which despite showing many glimpses of genious, it also shows the band aren't quite at the top level yet, though the effort and overall quality is far above average. The band does manage to mix melancholic indie with fun indie to get a perfectly acceptable overall sound, though I feel they need to stick predominantly to one and throw in a couple of the others tracks every so often. The fun feeling of the band is by far my favourite though "Killer" and "clinging on for life" are among the best tracks on the album.

The CD extras (which won't work on my home PC) include videos, which help to keep with the bands almost too friendly approach (see their myspace for otherinstances). The band are most certainly ones to watch out for in the future, but lets hope they do jump that little bit to the next level (a bit like The Zutons did with their second album) ratehr than go backwards (like the Arctic Monkeys did IMO).
The album won't win album of the year but is very much worth the money you'll pay for it (in any of the 4 coloured covers) and the insight into a band that will quickly be one of the star british bands of the naughties.

Summary: Naming names again, Irwin Sparkes is awesome.