IN REVIEW: Manchester Orchestra - "Hope"

Back in the spring, when I reviewed Manchester Orchestra's fourth album Cope, I lauded the band for maintaining some of their emotional weight even while focused on making the hardest, loudest record they could; even at its ugliest the quality of Andy Hull's songwriting, as it turns out, trumps whatever else the songs may have in mind stylistically.

If listening to Cope doesn't bring that into sharp focus, enter Hope; comprised of quieter, more acoustic based versions of the songs on Cope, Hope attempts to be the yin to its yang, soothing where the former screamed. At the very least, it's interesting to hear the guitars stripped back, but much of Hope finds the band running too far in the opposite direction.

If you couldn't get past the slashing, violent guitars of lead single Top Notch, on Hope they've been reduced to a palm-muted whisper, leaving the growling and screaming of the former version to the piano. Girl Harbor's explosive chorus, once threatening to drown the listener in noise, now washes over like a pleasing wave lapping at your legs on the beach. Then there's Every Stone, one of Cope's true highlights; in its original form the most energetic and pleasant tracks, it ends up being one of the most altered songs on Hope. The tempo is dropped significantly, and the payoff of the chorus is distilled down to an solemn, plaintive vocal and sparse instrumentation.

All eleven songs are given the same treatment, whether it benefits the song or not. All That I Really Wanted actually reaps the biggest reward from the process; on Cope just another raging rocker, given so much room to breathe with the arrangement it receives on Hope its impact grows. Conversely, See It Again's a cappella interpretation removes most of the emotion and bombast of the original, presented here in its purest form but feeling like a hollow shell of its former self.

Which brings us to the crux of it; while laying the songs bare reveals their strengths, it also reveals their weaknesses. While there are a few alternates that are really well executed, there are a lot of songs which simply have the guts torn out, leaving only skeletons behind. Added orchestration can't fill all the holes, and much of Hope lacks the vibrancy and urgency that hallmarks the group's best work.

So, while it's interesting to hear these new interpretations, I'm not sure how many fans of the band will actually prefer them to the originals. Make no mistake, these songs still have great foundations, but the foundations are often all that's presented on Hope. We know they can go hard, and we know they can so soft, but this record offers no in between (and it certainly doesn't help the cause to remove drums completely from all songs). Having heard both quiet and loud versions of this album, one can't help but wonder whether or not these songs would truly thrive on neutral ground.

November 17, 2014 • Loma Vista

Highlights Girl Harbor • The Ocean • All That I Really Wanted