Hop Along

2012 was a momentous year in music for me.  It saw my two favourite bands of all time release LPs, and a large number of my favourite songwriters releasing fantastic solo efforts (John Samson, Andy Hull, Katie Churchfield, etc.).  There were plenty of strong releases from the world of electronic music, as well as a large number of top rap/hip-hop albums. But with all this going on, rising to the top of the pile is an ugly folky indie-rock album that is nothing if not rough around the edges.  Frances Quinlann’s yelpy vocals have deterred many, being called “screechy” at times, and they are certainly hard to love.  This is true of the entire album in fact: through ten tracks of loud, often abrasive madness, Hop Along bears their collective soul via raw, passionate rock music. It is not a settling album, I can agree with its detractors on that point, but therein lies the strange beauty of Get Disowned.  It sounds nervous, fidgety, and unsure of itself, pairing perfectly with Quinlann’s open-ended questions of love and desperation. There is something undeniably human about the sounds and words found within this frenzied album, and while some are turned off by its ugliness, something about the sound that Hop Along have perfected here appeals to me in a way that is impossible to articulate. Get Disowned is a remarkably emotional and personable album once the listener can begin to accept it for what it is, flaws an all. Perhaps Quinlann herself said it best on No Good al Joad when she yelps (and I mean fucking YELPS) “everybody is a little hard to love sometimes.” In a year of the first Godspeed LP in 10 years, the best Mountain Goats album since their golden era, and dozens of other fantastic releases, this slow-burner has left them all in its dust. Best album of the year?  Dear god no. But nothing released in 2012 carries the same emotional weight for me as this album does. It is ugly, neurotic, but yet strangely uplifting (sometimes even life-affirming) and I can’t get enough of it.