I've been jamming this record a lot, and while it doesn't really fit into the general theme that this blog tends to follow, I'm going to post it anyways. Hop Along Queen Ansleis is a fantastic folk/indie band from Philadelphia, originally started as the solo project of Frances Quinlan. This record makes me think of hot summer days, laid back and lazy yet accented with moments of explosive excited energy. Sometimes it feels like minutes have passed between the strums on the echoey, twangy guitar, and suddenly you're awash in noisy raucous shouting, laughing and singing. Quinlan has a fantastic, cute voice, with just the right amount of quiver to keep it weird. At times she's barely audible, whispering secrets into the mic, other times she's shouting so loud the song descends into this beautiful noisy mess of distortion. There is a great friendly vibe to this record that reminds me of Akron Family's self titled with tons of great sing alongs that sounds like there is 50 people in the room with you. It's the perfect soundtrack for those kind of days where you call in sick to work because you'd rather ride your bike and hang out on a hot porch with your best friends pretending you're 12 again. Sometimes we all need those kind of days....especially in the middle of February in Alberta.
~AB
Thank you so much, author! Great review of marvelous music that difficult to find!
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