Hundred Reasons - 'Shatterproof Is Not A Challenge' (Columbia)
4/5
By: Toby L
Last summer, rockfeedback went out on an adventure in New York. Fresh after viewing one of Jet's debut headline performances in the city, a pub (or, rather - seeing as this is America... a bar)-crawl was decided upon. Joining us on the wobbly journey, aside from the band, management, slappers and entourage themselves, were the group's producer Dave Sardy, The Vines and two reserved, sleepy-eyed Brits, all of whom had just attended the concert. We looked a little closer at the latter. They seemed peculiarly familiar. We probed.
'So, what are you doing out here?'
'Oh, we're recording an album with Dave,' answered the blonde-y one, at which interval he pointed to one Mr. Sardy, who beamed extravagantly.
We peered closer, the drunken haze proving impenetrably distracting. Then, suddenly, it clicked, the bombshell dropping - but we wanted further confirmation.
'Right, which band are you in?'
Humbly anticipating a flat response, the guy responds once more. 'Hundred Reasons.'
'Of course,' we enthused wildly, having been ardent pushers and admirers of the band's first LP, 'Ideas Above Our Station'. 'Wow - how's the new record going, then?'
Delighted at fellow acknowledgement in a lonely city so far from home, now introduced properly as drummer Andy Bews - the 'blonde-y one' - a smile developed. 'Quite amazingly. We're just on a creative roll. I really think people are in for a surprise...' The rest of the night, we forget (... perhaps for the best).
And so, as this lengthy pre-amble suggests, despite an unassuming, distinctly English humbleness, there's still an air of assurance, confidence in the HR camp.
F**king right, too. 'Shatterproof Is Not A Challenge' takes all the gusto, emotiveness, urgency and fulfilment of their melodious, textured, intricate debut-LP and adds to the fold a cutting grit, ferociousness and angst that will earn the twenty-something's new cred. Blissfully, it's all done-so without the compromise of any of the initial formula which first rewarded our early listens of the bludgeoning quintet. Evolution it seems; hardly revolution.
And, jeez - do you remember a rock album this quickly desirable? The pack-a-punch opening - 'Savanna' and an engrossing, strained 'Stories With Unhappy Endings' - before a back-to-back singles-embossing of truly great thunder-anthem 'What You Get' and the raspy quickie 'The Great Test'. Yet, worried that it's all too sweat and gristle over heart and soul? Then look to 'Harmony' - or even the following 'Lullaby'. Indeed, the way this record pans out, continuity and flow has seldom seemed so considered; this really is a full-length play (especially come the arrival of the climactic 'Makeshift', particularly enhanced following all its precedents).
So, in their grinding, odd time-signatures, relentless roars and yells, geeky metal-hooks and awkward abrasion, Hundred Reasons rise amidst the rubble as the UK's strongest/only/most random chaos-pop collision we presently have. So long as they never lose sight of such sense of joyous noise and plundering vigour, it looks like our assailants will be battering and then soothing us for some years yet.
Artists in this article: Hundred Reasons
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