Lonely H: Don’t Let the Cheesy Band Photos Fool You
The Lonely H – Hair
Control Group Records
By Greg Lehman
WHO: The Lonely H
WHAT: Honest rock
WHERE: Port Angeles, Washington (Coming to your town soon)
WHEN: Labor Day weekend at Bumbershoot (Check full show listings at www.myspace.com/thelonelyh)
WHY: Because you should click there and listen to some tracks before further reading this review.
HOW: again… click on the link.
Ah yes, “the lonely h!”
The meaning of this great young band’s name came to me as if I had suddenly figured out the puzzle on a Rainier stubby bottle cap.
The Lonely H’s second album, Hair, opens with “Just Don’t Know,” a track that perfectly displays this Port Angeles quintet playing around with some of their favorite—Brian Wilson, Zep, Queen.
For what it tees up, the song should have been called “You Just Don’t Know (How Much You Are Going to Enjoy these Next 39 Minutes).” Hair is an ingenious albums soaked in the sounds of classic rock and pop.
Well, there’s a brick wall sorta WAY back there…
The Lonely H and I both heart the Beatles, and the band plays obvious homage to them with their musical wit and impressive interwoven harmonies (check out the sea-sounding song “Captain.”) But a straight Beatles reprise they are not. In fact, “All Hope” sounds like Simon & Garfunkel, and that is clearly a different box. Then there’s “Yeah Yeah,” which comes on like Queens Of The Stone Age rocker (do they even have a box yet?).
By this point in the album its hard to play critic—there is a smile across my face as rock out in this familiar, comforting territory. I’m enjoying it so much that I magically am already on track 12, “Say Your Prayers,” which sounds like Steely Dan with a screw loose.
Stand out tracks on this solid release from Seattle’s Control Group Records include “The Meal” (a Blind Melon-esque beauty), “For Barbara” (a bouncing Franz Ferdinand romp that shows these boys aren’t stuck solely in the 70s) and “Yeah Yeah” (a brash, thrash-your-hair-rocker).
This is an incredibly honest and heartfelt album of extremely high quality. Purchase it. – (7/10)