A Brilliant EP from The Hello Stranger
An EP release from The Hello Stranger delivers a soiree of cinematic and bedroom pop crossover soundscapes that complement each other throughout the record's course, and in doing so, the EP boasts an incredible amount of personality and a unique approach to songwriting and production.
The Botched Clockwork EP is brimming with character and that's one of the things you end up getting attached to right from the start. The release wastes very little time giving you glimpses into what you might expect with its first track, "The Loving Bell" which not only portrays this honesty and openness lyrically but also begins to give some of the record's staples musically.
You have an acoustic guitar, vocals, this slight sort of indie-pop style lo-fi percussion, and strings that become lush and let the song Feel full-bodied and again, very cinematic to me.
This track is followed by, "For A Real Flag" which boasts a sort of 60s and 70s contemporary pop influence with vintage keys and vocals that harmonize throughout the entire track adding this textured set of layers to everything. This approach brings color and almost animation to the track but you really get pulled into the atmosphere that it delivers.
I get little hints of artists like Elliott Smith at times and the whole thing just delivers so much inner thoughts spilling out so that you can soak it all in.
This is a record that you listen to from beginning to end. Listening to the first couple of songs will give you a hint at what you might expect of the release but it will not give you the full spectrum of what the EP has to offer as a whole.
I also get little glimpses of Brian Wilson-influenced vocals at times and all of it comes together like pieces of a puzzle.
I absolutely love the aesthetic that this record delivers. It does keep to this sort of combination of what I consider a bedroom pop approach but it also is heavily influenced by that vintage sound and tone from music of previous decades.
It's all beautifully articulated and again, it's the character and persona that you end up latching onto as well because the music surrounds the premise.
These songs are almost like stories or chapters in the artist's life to an extent and the music follows suit but that's what gives you the mood.
So you listen to the lyrics and where they take you and the music provides that mood so that the entire feel or vibe of the songs come through exactly as they were intended.
I love listening to this record because it makes me feel like I'm listening to the soundtrack to a Wes Anderson film.
There's so much of that aesthetic happening and I enjoyed every last second of it.
This was a beautifully woven record with elements of color and edginess lurking just beneath the surface. There was tons of truth and honesty, that bright presence and persona, and stories to be told. There's not much more you can ask for from a good Indie pop record.
This was a beautiful soundscape. Between the strings, guitars, and vocals, amongst other things, it surely created that atmosphere and almost all of these songs have beauty and a graceful undertone with notes and textures that float through the ethers of the songs.
This is the kind of EP you listen to with headphones on, so you can really soak in everything as it was meant to be.
Absolutely take a deep dive into this record when you can and again, go from beginning to end because then it's almost like watching a short film.
We see how this affects you.
