Album Review: Horse Jumper Of Love - Horse Jumper Of Love
By Devon Hannan, Features Editor
[Disposable America; 2016]
Rating: 7/10
Key Tracks: "Spaceman," "Dirt," "Sun Poisoning"
Finally, a DIY band from Boston that isn’t hardcore. In fact, Horse Jumper of Love’s debut full length couldn’t be any further from it. The band dives into a sound that reaches an equilibrium between sadboy punk and shoegaze. With an already big name in DIY, Horse Jumper of Love is on the brink of curating an even brighter future within and beyond their scene.
The album opens with “Ugly Brunette,” a song about losing a t-shirt at a young age, followed by the crippling guilt of just about anything else you can experience when you’re ten years old. Many of the tracks on the first half of the album follow suit in terms of emotion and hollow instrumentals. In fact, chord progressions on the album remain very simple and hypnotic. “Spaceman,” for example, carries the airy, quiet weight, like a storm cloud about to release its heavy droplets.
However, just when you start to think that it’s an average fuzz rock album, Horse Jumper of Love finally gives you a taste of something different. Saving the best for last doesn’t always work out, but in this case, it’s well worth the wait.
The beginning of “Dirt” sounds very similar to every track prior on the album, however the slow, twinkling strings are obliterated with a heavy bass and crashing percussion. It’s probable to be caught off guard and think, “Where the heck did that come from?” but that feeling quickly subsides as the following track, “Sun Poisoning,” continues to rip. Arguably the most thought out track on the album, “Sun Poisoning” starts pretty slow, but it isn’t before long when the thrumming strings are traded for a catchy, much heavier riff. What’s most interesting about this track is that it frequently returns to that slower rock, creating an almost perfect balance of sentiment and fuzz.
Horse Jumper of Love’s self-titled debut is a quality first endeavor that works well among the dynamic landscape they have created for themselves. While the first half of the album is melancholically self-reflective, the final tracks’ instrumentals come in heavier than the gravity on Jupiter. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to catch this trio playing in your local basement soon, because it’s pretty likely that they won’t be playing those spaces for long.
