No Riddance Here Album Review If you enjoy scruffy, unvarnished raw musical emotionalism, chances are good you’ll appreciate what Karl Hoppner has done with No Riddance Here. Also, if singing on key is not at all that important to you, you’ll be a lot closer to really digging the songs on this EP. Hoppner sings with the gut-level sincerity of Joe Strummer (of The Clash), but also with the off-key-ness of Shane McGowan of The Pogues. “On The Rocky Road” begins with crowd noises. It sounds like a late night bar sound. The music kicks in with a two-step percussion part. Then the guitar and bass rev up. Hoppner sings these words like a drunken desperado. The music is a little bit like a Social Distortion punk rock rave-up, albeit a whole lot sloppier and – quite frankly – much drunker. The track gets a little quieter toward the end. The most difficult part for listeners is whenever Hoppner tries to hold notes. If you’re old enough to remember the old film projectors in grade school that were forced to show nearly warn out films, you can imagine how his voice sounds as it warbles its way through the notes. There is also an electric guitar solo on this track, but it’s not any Edge or Keith Richards. Instead, it comes off like a beginner guitarist taking his/her first hesitant lead solo. The track ends with bar sounds again as it fades out. With “Out of Town,” Hoppner sings a folk-ish song. He sings, “I came to surrender everything but you.” The chorus is a wordless “Oh-wo-woah” sound. Hoppner appears to be a literate lyricist as he sings the highly personalized lines to this song. It’s a love song of sorts to a girl. It’s also a song played with a stuttering three-chord groove. It even stops completely at one part, and finds Hoppner announcing once again, “I came to surrender everything but you.” You can hear him singing these words quieter and quieter toward the song’s end as it eventually fades out. The best track on the album instrumentally is on “Ego City.” It has plenty of emotional momentum. Hoppner sings, “Everybody has a standard that they’re trying to meet.” He also sings of how “It’s a complex ego city.” Just what he means by these words is not so easy to decipher. This seems to be commentary on what it means to be young and how difficult it is to find one’s self during those troubling youthful years. “Disability” begins with a punk-ish bass line. On this one, more prominent acoustic piano can be heard in the mix. The song sounds a little like a Bob Dylan song. There are other places where Hoppner sounds a little like Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction. The song strips down to just bass and drums with less than a minute left in the track. It then goes back into a full arrangement with Hoppner singing over punk-ish guitar work. The majority of these songs clock in at just about two minutes and a half. Only “On the Rocky Road” lasts for four and a half minutes. They are all the wailings of a desperate man. None of it is pretty, and much of it is borderline unmusical. Yet all of it sounds sincere and real and not flippant or shallow. You’re left with the impression Karl Hoppner has something important to say. Now, if only he could tighten up the arrangement s and make his voice stay in key. Heck, even Bob Dylan hits a right note now and again, if only accidently. This album is not recommended for the faint of ear. But if you’re truly brave, go ahead and give it a listen. Artist: Karl Hoppner Album: No Riddance Here Review By: Dan MacIntosh Rating: 3 Stars (out of 5)
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 17:16:28 +0000