Search - Hood :: Lost You

Not "Lost"

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 06/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Think of lush, swirling indie-rock in the tradition of South. Then add some glitch-pop edges. That about describes the dizzyingly elaborate sound of Hood, which (like South) goes under the listing of "rock bands that not enough people know about."



"The Lost You" opens on an odd note with the intermittent staccato beats of the title song, which rapidly descends into electronic beats and whirling guitars. Then it lapses into the darker, more electronic "You Can't Breathe Memories," and the uneven ambient-rock of "The Rest of Us Still Care." That song is the one dull one on the whole disc... and you guessed it, bad Hood is still better than average.



They take a brief foray into softer, sweeter pop with "By Island Lake," a delicate little violin/keyboard melody. Then Hood slips back into their usual style for "Over the Land Over the Sea," which builds up to an eerie crescendo of drums, echoing voices and epic soundscaping.



As an added bonus, Hood includes the music video for "The Lost You" on here. It pretty much matches the dizzying, stop-and-start style of the song. There's a lot of shots of staggering legs, fences, grass, etc. Don't expect a linear style here, if you're used to typical MTV-style music videos. It's a good video, but I personally had to lie down after seeing it.



The intensity and layers of Hood's sound are probably why they aren't as well-known as they deserve to be. There's a lot of psychedelic twisting, sound sampling, and it's all set over a solid rock'n'roll base that is too dense and murky to sound like anything on the radio. And I say that as a compliment.



It's so murky that I can't really make out what the sung lyrics are, except a few phrases that sound vaguely like "the church is falling down." This isn't a big minus; in fact, it could be seen that the vocals are merely a part of the music, like the gently chiming guitars or the rapid-fire drums.



"The Lost You" EP is a good listen on its own -- especially with that mind-blowing music video -- and a good place to sample Hood's lush, spiralling brand of rock."