Review of HF

[Hardman DK]

A little belated now perhaps, but I wanted to share my reaction to HF.....

I've really had to give HF several spins before committing pixel to
cyberspace. Not only has it been such a long wait for the new BOC album,
with all the weight of expectations that entails, but on initial listening
one cannot but help making comparisons with BOC's back catalogue.  Now,
after several listens, some of my initial thoughts have indeed changed
whilst others have become reinforced. Anyway....

Overall impressions first. I was immediately struck by the apparent
division between the poppier numbers, sung by Buck, and the heavier ones,
sung by Eric. On first listening I was rather disappointed by this; the
pop numbers seemed rather un-BOC whilst some of the heavier stuff didn't
compare so well with the BOC of old. Now, though, I'm beginning to find
songs like X-Ray Eyes and Real World irresistible. And there's clearly a
link with some of the post_AOF output where a less heavy approach became
evident on songs like "I Love the Night", "Moon Crazy", "In Thee" and
"Burnin' for You" (to name a few). And some of the harder numbers do stand
up on repeated listenings, notably "See You in Black", which grabs
immediately, and "Cold Grey Light of Dawn" which has really grown on me.
That said, there are a few numbers which, although they might be solid
enough for most bands, don't quite represent the cut-above that we've come
to expect from BOC. I'm thinking here of "Power Underneath Despair",
"Hammer Back" and "Live for Me". The first two of these are enjoyable
enough heavy metal numbers, with "Hammer Back" being particularly catchy",
but they seem to lack two things: first, they don't have the lyrical
*strangeness* that we've come to associate with BOC, and second, the
music itself lacks the inventiveness that we've come to love in songs such
as "Monsters" and "Shadow of California" (to choose two songs more or less
at random). Similarly, "Live for Me" wouldn't have sounded out of place on
Buck's solo album, or on MTV, but is really musically rather too MOR for a
BOC album.

Lyrically, several of the songs exhibit a degree of repetition in
the lyrics that hasn't been seen before. On some songs the music and the
lyrics have a strength of their own that allows the repetition to slip by
unnoticed (e.g. SYIB, HM), but on others the repetition is rather clunky
by BOC standards (PUD, HB).

Finally, here's my reaction to each individual song:

See You in Black: A real stormer. A strong lyric, sung with gusto and
driven along by Buck and the rythm section. I love the neat little guitar
fill just before the second verse.  9/10

Harvest Moon: As Sandy Pearlman was quoted as saying in Goldmine, this is
a song of genius. I can't imagine anybody else who would write a lyric
like this.  Starting off as an innocuous piece of history, we slowly get
hints that something more is going on, a feeling that is enhanced by the
sudden change of pace as the song breaks into the first of three connected
guitar breaks, with the second and third breaks building on the excitement
of the previous one. Finally, the last verse hauntingly confirms that
there is indeed some Evil present, though what exactly is left to our
imaginations. A characteristic A-minor Buck Dharma song, it's
ringing open G is reminiscent of Don't Fear the Reaper. Perfect. 10/10

Power Underneath Despair: After the superlative nature of what precedes,
the plodding opening bars of PUD are an immediate disappointment, and
although Eric turns in a strong vocal performance this song never rises
above the level of competent hard rock. 6/10

X-Ray Eyes: An excellent pop number that revives the Sci-Fi/B-movie
interest first seen on Spectres. This one impresses more and more with
repeated listening. Its neat lyric is given weight by a strong melody and
a series of rythmic changes that belie the song's essential simplicity.
9/10

Hammer Back: This is a catchy hard-rock number. The lyric is good, though
not particularly distinguished.  However, the song is swept along by an
enthusiastic band performance, particularly Buck Dharma's guitar break,
that goes some way to disguising the fact that this isn't really an
exceptional song. 7/10

Damaged: Buck Dharma always gives the impression of being quite an
easy-going mild-mannered sort of guy, so this song is kind of "out of
character" for him. Hard to imagine a less damaged person! Nevertheless,
like Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, it's good to take on a
change in role now and again. And Buck does it well. The spoken intro
comes as something of a surprise, lending a very personal feel that is
unusual for BOC but which suits the song. After that the song drives along
nicely and happily, given it's simple rythmic pattern, resists any
temptation to drag out the length and outstay it's welcome.

Cold Grey Light of Dawn: I have a live tape of this from a few years back,
and have never been overly-impressed. So it came as a nice surprise to
find that the studio version is a piece of some quality. A gloomily
atmospheric number with a strong lyric, this is the kind of song where BOC
show that heavy rock can rise above the usual cliches. I suspect the
younger audience will be more impressed by "Hammer Back" though.  8/10

Real World: Lyrically, this seems like a perfect Buck Dharma song, though
presumably most of the writing was done by John Shirley, who is mentioned
first in the credits. A song about various wierd phenomena, this song is
clearly aimed at the X-Files/Fortean enthusiasts. However, the real
surprise is in the music itself, with it's country/bluesish acoustic
guitar rythm and Buck's lazily drawled vocal. 8/10

Live for Me: Again, although Shirley gets first mention in the credits,
this seems like a typical Buck number. It's a song about a guy who's
brother lays dying after a car smash: his final words are "Live for me".
Thematically, it seems not a million miles from "Your Loving Heart" from
Buck's solo album.  That said, on this song the music lets the lyrics
down: it's very MOR and thus rather dull - the one song on the album that
I shall probably skip in future.

Still Burnin': Buck Dharma goes into ZZ Top mode. I can't honestly say
that this is really a BOC number. On the other hand, it's thoroughly
irresistible, so what the hell.  9/10

In Thee (live): As if to prove that the lighter approach has always been a
part of BOC's repertoire, the boys reprise this Mirrors song in an
acoustic version. A piece of nostalgia really, for some reason played half
a tone lower than the original (that's if my guitar is tuned correctly)
and with a fluffed lyric (no studio overdubs here, mate!). 6/10

Overall album rating: 7/10

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David Hardman                           "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
HCI Design Centre                        That I love Luton town"
School of Informatics                        (John Hegley)
City University
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB

Phone: +44 0171 477 8152
Fax:   +44 0171 477 8859
E-mail: D.K.Hardman at city.ac.uk
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