by John Bear
Daily Lobo
Sometimes a band has a rather lame gimmick that borders on idiotic.
In the case of Hypatia Lake - and this is saying nothing about their long-winded song titles - the gimmick is snotty and pretentious. It almost made me break the monitor on my computer.
Supposedly, Hypatia Lake is a small community where the inhabitants wage war against an evil candy factory. The band's Web site contains an electronic book that attempts to explain this that the user must click and drag the pages of in order to turn them. The only problem with this is I don't have enough room on my desk to drag the mouse. I tried and failed until I got frustrated and quit. So I guess I will be unable to spin the yarn of Hypatia Lake and its battle against the evil candy factory. Sorry.
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Fortunately, the band's strange little concept doesn't really matter, because the music is good enough to wash away any unpleasant memories of the Web site.
And We Shall Call Him Joseph opens with a haunting, atmospheric synthesizer layering on "A Hollow Star Descends," which melts seamlessly into the beautifully eerie piano line and thick, in-and-out guitar distortion of "Joseph and the Divine Intervention of the Recreational Center." The song ends with orchestral string synths and the soft moaning of the lead vocals.
"Fishies vs. Lines" changes the tone of things a little with bouncy, indie riffing and guitar work that matches the vocals in tone, making for a bizarre but lovely combination of the two. The song borders on being a little too happy for my taste, but never quite gets there.
"Bridgett Fountainhead" marks the album's return to its former mood with the same muddy guitar and pretty but indecipherable lyrics. Most of the album slides back and forth between bouncy melodies such as "Farmers Can Be Jedi Too," and mildly disturbed piano and guitar murk. Sometimes the two disparate musical stylings collide - if only for a moment - as is the case in "Paradigm of the Introvert."
"During Dinner at the Imitation Canals" marks a left turn into a tremolo guitar-driven tangent of haunted noises and soft vocals. It is the softest point in the album, and segues nicely into the anthem-like song "He Could Not Save Her From the Cold Blade in the Pale Moonlight." The song sounds like Cracker. Maybe Cracker just sounds like everyone.
The remaining three tracks on the album sort of fizzle out. The final track, "Timothy's Militia" picks up the pace slightly but fails to bring the apocalyptic noise fest one would expect. After all, they are waging war against an evil candy factory - let's get crazy.
And We Shall Call Him Joseph
Hypatia Lake
Grade: B+
