Yeah! Favourite new album of the year so far I think, and at a minimum right up there with Golden Hour and 7. Hell-On is as warm, rich, enveloping and textured a record as Case has released; the last song's called "Pitch or Honey", and the album feels full of both, flowing through all kinds of underground chambers.
The bright moments are as generously bright and modern-retro as they always have been (exhibit A: "Bad Luck", which could almost be taking cues from Camera Obscura[*]), the propulsive sections as urgent (e.g. the commanding crests to which songs like "Halls of Sarah" and "Curse of the I-5 Corridor" work their way), the ballads as touching ("Sleep All Summer"!), the fragments as alluringly oblique and casually great (there's a terrific mid section pairing of "Dirty Diamond" and "Oracle of the Maritimes" - two songs that don't seem to be doing anything special but definitely are, especially the stormy drama summoned by the latter's end). It all works.
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[*] The sung-chanted "another happy new year" coda to "Gumball Blue" also brings them to mind.
The bright moments are as generously bright and modern-retro as they always have been (exhibit A: "Bad Luck", which could almost be taking cues from Camera Obscura[*]), the propulsive sections as urgent (e.g. the commanding crests to which songs like "Halls of Sarah" and "Curse of the I-5 Corridor" work their way), the ballads as touching ("Sleep All Summer"!), the fragments as alluringly oblique and casually great (there's a terrific mid section pairing of "Dirty Diamond" and "Oracle of the Maritimes" - two songs that don't seem to be doing anything special but definitely are, especially the stormy drama summoned by the latter's end). It all works.
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[*] The sung-chanted "another happy new year" coda to "Gumball Blue" also brings them to mind.
