Pop-rock. An unintentional insult to any self-respecting band, but irritatingly a combination haphazardly shoved before any mention of welsh trio The Joy Formidable.
Hitch, the band’s third album is a follow up to 2013’s Wolf’s Law, and is, in their own words a, “cathartic and sexier” affair, a process that’s “musically and emotionally put them through the wringer.”
Released on their own label C’mon Let’s Drift and recorded in their native Wales, lead single ‘The Last Thing on My Mind’ is an admittedly fun, slightly americanised prog-rock track that’s reminiscent of The Cardigan’s glory days, think ‘Favourite Game’, or ‘Erase and Rewind’.
‘The Brook’, is as it aims to be, moving. Mercilessly yet delicately tugging on the emotions of anyone who’s experienced the heartache of a love lost, with it’s vulnerable, reflectful lyrics and soft, harp like strings, “I’m in love with what could have been, and it’s not real."
The record has a much more minimal production style than its predecessors, less gloss, fewer, but not entirely bereft of, those big-tent anthems which initially put them on the map. There's no argument that Hitch isn’t a progression, it’s good, at times great, even.
Problem is, there just isn’t the appetite for this particular strain of emotionally charged, proggy yet quintessential (dare I say it) pop/rock. A saturated market, a ship that has well and truly sailed, an untimely record lost in the wrong space and time.
