Review Summary: more fun. than Jack Antonoff
I am not a beach person. Sand is intrusive and the sun has it out for me. Last time I went to the beach I ended up looking like a rasher of uncooked bacon and vowed never to leave the house again.
Hideout can be my surrogate, I guess. It’s a sweet little slice of summer, enamoured with flowery chords and snappy bass riffage. The whole thing is just
nice.
I particularly enjoy the chopped up, retro guitar melody in
Myenemy. If you ever catch me doing the seventies finger-point dance move, I’d like you to punch me in the face. I’d also like you to understand that it was all this song’s fault.
The rest of the EP doesn’t do much to alleviate such a dangerous case of Compulsive Head-Bobbing Disorder (CHD) either. The title track proves it’s completely intentional – even on this slow-burning swirl of 70s dance-pop, there’s a proclivity to stutter along and tap your feet absent-mindedly.
Older is as weightless and snug as a cloud, and equally as capricious. It is a transitional piece not in the context of the record but in the context of a life, the conclusion to a small but wholly significant chapter. It goes:
“The past is a world of retained hurt” and then it closes that door gently because, conversely, the future is a world of untapped potential.
Besides a marked charm both polite and unassuming,
Hideout is defined by its consistency – nay, homogeneity. The record can honestly feel like one long, nonchalant disco riff; with contemplation signaled by slower tempos and blissfulness indicated by a sprinkling of blithe falsetto. It oscillates deftly between these two atmospheres, finding its wave and riding it into shore; yet it never re-enters the surf. I shouldn’t complain, the record serves it purpose – it’s for you to sink into (not sink your teeth into) while your problems become background noise for a short while.
In any event, I’m listening to
Myenemy again, and I think I’ve pulled my neck out. Someone help.
