Record Review: Holler, Wild Rose! - "Our Little Hymnal"

Record Review: Holler, Wild Rose! - “Our Little Hymnal”

Rating: 8.7 / 10.0

When I tore open the envelope containing “Our Little Hymnal” by New Jersey six piece Holler, Wild Rose!, I literally had no idea what to expect. There was nothing besides the CD in that envelope that arrived in my mailbox - no photograph, no press kit, nothing. At first, this struck me as strange, slightly mysterious, and - if I let my cynical side get the best of me - a little sketchy. But then, while flipping through the CD booklet as I spun the record for the first time, I noticed something that made everything crystal clear. One sentence, written on the inside cover: “Our little hymnal is yours.”

That is probably a better summary of what this record stands for than anything I could come up with. It is not an album to be simply listened to (or even, I suppose, critiqued), but experienced. Every time I listened to this album, it sounded like the band had just discovered something magnificent, and was eager to share it, but still careful not to put too much of themselves in it that they distorted it or made it in any way impure. These meandering, vast works of shoegazing indie folk are not “theirs”, they are “ours” - they speak to us all, for us all.

The arrangements are sparse, strange, wonderful, expansive, with vocal melodies that soar, backing vocals and harmonies that infuse the dark atmosphere of this record with a gospel soul. Rather than write “slow songs”, “fast songs”, “soft songs” or “loud songs”, they write pieces of music that all have their own arc; the songs all evolve and change, amorphous and alive. Holler, Wild Rose! shirk common conventions of structure and let the music guide their songwriting rather than the other way around. And they are up to the challenge; they navigate their songs with supreme confidence and aplomb. The record wins no points for brevity, clocking in at just under 70 minutes. But I don’t think you’ll mind; I certainly didn’t.

“Our Little Hymnal” strives for the cohesion of Brian Wilson’s masterpiece “SMiLE”, painting with a sonic palette not unlike that of My Bloody Valentine with a dash of “Black Sheep Boy” era Okkervil River. The band grants their listener no breaks, which makes this record at times a tiring one to listen to. One can’t help but wish there were more bright spots to be enjoyed (like the standout track “Sun Vines”).

If anything, HWR! could stand to learn the value of brevity and structural simplicity - there is great value to be found in the juxtaposition of tight structural frameworks with liquid, formless streams of consciousness. But as it stands, this record is an achievement, and certainly worth a few listens.


-PTC