Hop Along Photo by Tonje Thilesen
Recently, I had the occasion to see the band Hop Along live and in person. They were playing down the street from me, so it was worth the brief jaunt in my eyes. I had enjoyed their album Painted Shut from 2015 quite a bit, and I had earlier in the year given their new album, Bark Your Head Off, Dog, one spin. Since then, it has been included in my conversations about the year in music, but in a "That Hop Along record is pretty good" way. Just a casual addendum to the talk after I had already covered my favorite albums of the year.
Francis Quinlan
The show was great. Opener Bat Fangs was quite fun, and then Hop Along played for over an hour. It is one of the longer sets I can recall seeing, especially in a general admission, everybody is standing around show. I will admit that once they dipped into the third song of their encore my mind started to drift to the idea of me sitting down. Of course, I stuck it out, and I was glad to. Hop Along tore it up, and it made me want to revisit Bark Your Head Off, Dog again.
The thing about the album is that it knocks it out of the park right out of the gate. "How Simple," the opening track, is the best on the record, and also my favorite song by the band full stop. That's great, but the rest of the album can't live up to the glory of "How Simple." Another minute hiccup is that the album is nine songs long but lasts over 40 minutes. There are a lot of lengthy tunes. Only one song is under 3:30, and that isn't ideal to me.
"How Simple," the opening track, is the best on the record, and also my favorite song by the band full stop.
Frontwoman Francis Quinlan has a great voice. Listen to "Waitress" from Painted Shut to get a sense of the power of her singing. I would also definitely recommend giving Bark Your Head Off, Dog at least one shot. It remains a good, if not great, album. You definitely should listen to "How Simple," and watch the music video. It's a fun one. That could very well end up being enough, though.
