The Hush Sound – Goodbye Blues

The Hush Sound‘s Like Vines was a rather impressive release of piano driven pop. It never made too many repeat trips into my CD player but I still enjoyed it and had high hope for their follow-up. Now that follow-up as arrived in the form of Goodbye Blues, I’m sad to say it failed to live up to my expectations. It’s still a impressive piano driven pop release but once again it won’t find it’s way into my record player all too often.

The odd thing is that while The Hush Sound have found a sound that they’re quite comfortable with they have done almost a complete three sixty compared to Like Vines. The basic foundation of their music has remained constant with them being able to successfully combine the styles of many different generations all the while keeping one fluid sensation to the album but the way they deliver the songs has flipped around completely. On Like Vines, it was Bob Morris who led the album. The first six songs all had him taking control of the lead vocal duties with Grace Salpeter coming in at the latter half. This time Salpeter takes the lead for essentially the whole album. It’s not until the sixth song, As You Cry, that Morris takes the lead and then he only does on two other tracks in the latter half of the album.

It’s probably a good thing that Salpeter has taking control of most of the album because her vocals are astonishing. Her reach and tone is impeccable. It perfectly compliments the piano structure pop songs and enables Goodbye Blues to travel through different eras of music. Taking some cues from the cabarets of Paris, others from the 1920s and Tin Pan Alley era with the occasional 1960s pop feel too, The Hush Sound is able to deliver many different styles nicely compacted into one record. Honey, the lead single, is a more pop-rock song and Medicine Man is a foot-stomping track with the most energy on the entire album thanks to its beat and perfectly placed “woahs”. Love You Much Better, on the other hand, sounds like it was taken straight from a saloon. The highlight of the album however are Hurricane and That’s Okay. Salpeter’s vocals really soars on the two piano ballads as she shows off her skills through a fragile but emotional delivery.

What ends up hurting the album is when they try to get too fancy or artsy for their own good. The two musical interludes are the prime example. The opening song, cleverly titled Intro, is essentially a waste of disc space and puts the listener off of the record instead of pulling them into it. The two minute instrumental, Six (Interlude) doesn’t help carry the flow of the album either. Not only does it use the fade in and fade out effect but the repeated melody drags on for way too long. If they had just eliminated those two songs then they could have easily earned an extra half a star.

The Hush Sound have once again given us an album teetering on the edge of something great unfortunately they’re just not quite there yet and Goodbye Blues isn’t strong enough to pull back out for multiple listens. Salpeter’s vocals have, however, improved tremendously.