The Hate Rock Trio have resurfaced, following an unthinkable tragedy, to present a new full-length album which will undoubtedly be met with a degree of disagreement amongst listeners. The group, now a duo, has strengthened their sound technique, creating a listening experience undeniably original, challenging, and captivating; however, the absence of the riffs—which were an integral part of Marry Me Tonight—is noticeable and sorely missed.
The teaser song, "Eat Yr Heart," released as a free MP3 over this past summer, is a perfect indicator of how the album plays out. It's a cold, dark, and sterile place, almost completely void of life, exploiting the 808 drum machine and soaking that and the androgynous vocals deep in effects. The underlying mood is undeniably heavy, and at extremely loud volumes the album as a whole is a powerful lush audio bath. What's absent, however, is the almighty hook, an element so difficult to describe by most people, but a crucial component, and this prevents the album from being great.
Marry Me Tonight opened with a pounding pulsing rhythm and bass guitar driven sexual anthem, followed by the phenomenal "Rentboy," which was so captivating that it commanded attention for the rest of the album, and the following songs managed to sustain that excitement, without fail. Work (work, work), on the other hand, opens with a stark, tunefully absent, and almost completely uninteresting porn advertisement sounding bit in German, leaving very little reason to continue listening, and the payoff doesn't ever quite happen. The following song "Slo Glo," is the reintroduction of Johnnie's vocals to the mix, and while it's decent, it's a very sad and slow affair. It's hardly what the album needs at the launch. As the album continues through the other songs, the hooks that drove the last album are gone. Without the important captivating tunes, to me, this album seems unfinished.
It isn't until the last song of the first virtual side of this 10 song album, "Skinny," where there's a seemingly prevalent melody backing the vocals, but it and the melody from the following "Synthetic" remain stagnant and uninviting, to me, at least.The musical accompaniments to the rhythm and vocals are clearly more present on the second half of the album, but with the exception of the beautifully melancholic "Love Triangle," nearly all fall short of resonating strongly with me. In all fairness, this stark approach may work for other people—I have heard others reactions to the albums, and some people whose opinions I trust actually enjoy this approach quite a bit—but I want more, and I know the band is capable of creating more.
I haven't given up on HTRK yet, and perhaps some of the songs on Work (work, work) will grow on me more in due time, but there's a few too many low spots on this album and not enough strong points to get me to that place any time soon.
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