Album Review: Hundred Reasons - Glorious Sunset
Reviewed by Carl Black
Hundred Reasons are back. You remember Hundred Reasons, those baby-faced assassins’ who look like they've just rolled out of a GCSE exam and bounded onto the stage. They played with such enthusiasm but with the maturity of a band double their age. Well they've done their maturing away from the spotlight in the most part, and that maturity is evident on their new record, 'Glorious Sunset'. It may come as a bit of a shock to some people that it's less "let's get the party started' and more “let's have some serious discussion over dinner”.
I think die hard fans will still hear enough in the band to enjoy this new outing. The listeners have probably matured along with them. You can't stay young forever. Things change when you hit a certain age. Hundred Reasons have kept the foot to the floor and are looking out the front window as far as their music is concerned.
The music has more in common with Jimmy Eat World or Lonely the Brave. This is evident on certain song such as 'So So Soon', 'Right There With You' and 'The Old School Way'. They flirt with that echoy guitar sound that’s akin to the new wave era of music on the title track 'Glorious Sunset' The band venture into the distorted drum sound on 'Insultiment' that has an understated chorus and ringing guitar sound that hints of the 80s. One eye on went before in the form of 'It Suits You More' that has a more youthful and aggressive feel. But just as they get aggressive they can also be extremely sentimental with a song such as 'Replicate'. This starts with a haunting piano but builds to a crashing crescendo.
It's a very sad album and if the boyish band from yesteryear needed a packet of Kleenex to clean up boyish ejaculates, tissues are still handy for today's work, but more to dry those eyes. It’s like watching the Flying Horse in the quicksand scene in The Never-ending Story on a constant loop, not a dry eye in the house.
This is definitely a Hundred Reasons… just a bit older, a bit wiser. They have not rehashed the sound from their most popular period hoping the thirty something's would jump head long into the pit as if they were 19 years old again.
