Review Summary: Hovvdy listens to you
Listening to Hovvdy with your eyes closed, cinematic pictures flood your mind’s eye. Hovvdy sounds like a reunion with friends you haven’t seen for six months - having some beers in someone’s backyard, lounging in lawn chairs. The wind picks up and gently shakes the trees. The sun’s starting to go down, light flickering through the foliage. You look around, glad to see your friends again. It feels nostalgic to have everyone back together. You catch up. Someone confesses they’ve been having a rough time. You listen. You’re there for each other. You share some of laughs, maybe hug it out, and tell everyone how much you appreciate seeing them again after all this time.
Hovvdy’s main theme is friendship. It’s about being there for a friend who is having a hard time “Take a second, a minute, take your time / I'll sit quiet, we can be silent”, or about the frustration of not being able to be there for them “When you need some help I'm not around / God, I hate it”. About seeing your friend struggling: “I saw you hanging your head by the window / Saw you wipе your eyes / Maybe some help is worth a try / Maybe some help will work this time”. About wanting to make your friend smile “I could do a little dance / Do anything to make you smile”. About being thankful that a friend was there for you “I needed you to stay right here and you did / I wanted you to know how much it meant”.
Hovvdy often addresses the second person. This has an interesting effect. It’s like Hovvdy are talking to you directly. Like they see you, what you’ve been up to and the hardships you've been going through. They’re here to listen, and they look at you with the kind and patient gaze you might not be able to spare yourself. Admittedly, this might all be a little much for some people, but for the past five months, this record has been a bit of a comfort blanket for me. There’s just something about having these two Texan gentlemen tell me they see how hard I've been trying.
In many ways, Hovvdy is a soundtrack to early 30s. You’re not seeing your friends as much anymore. You’re giving up on some dreams. Some relationships end. But it’s also more relaxed. On ‘Big Blue’ the chorus “We can do a pivot, be a game changer” is contrasted by the laid back feel of the song. Like sure, you can still change it all up, and that’s reassuring to know somehow, but do you really want to? Early 30s is when you let go of expectations. You know who you are and what’s important to you, and you’re more appreciative of the time you get with the people you care about. It’s pretty chill.
The sound of the album is also pretty chill. Although Hovvdy does a good job of changing up the relative tempo of the songs, the feel of the songs is quite similar. It can get a little monotone at times. What's missing here is a song like ‘True Love’ (from a previous album). Something that jolts you out of your comfortable slumber. The album is quite long. Depending on who you are, 54 minutes is a long time to be pretty chill. If this is the sonic equivalent of taking a warm bath, do you want to have a 54 minute bath? Once the water starts getting cold and your fingers wrinkly, you might get the urge to get out.
The instrumentation here is subtle but efficient. Some parts are beautiful such as the subtle instrumentation at the end of ‘Meant’ or the little jam in ‘Give It Up’, but it can also be a bit plain. This is not active listening music. This is ‘set the vibe while you’re driving or doing chores' music. It’s good at what it is, but you’re not going to remember this for the songs themselves. What you’ll remember, if you remember this at all, is the feeling it evokes. This comfortable warm blanket of an album.
