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Rating: As the first (and hopefully there will be many more) album to review, I chose this one because I believe it is one of the best debuts and releases of 2004. As you well know, I'm talking about HOPE OF THE STATES, whose The Lost Riots, perhaps not very well known, truly made me jump out of my seat the first time I listened to it.
Let me preface by saying, their music is a mix of rock filled with violins, brass, and strings; it's epic music (at times reminiscent of post-rock) also full of very catchy choruses. When you listen to them, they always give you the feeling that this music is a sort of "testament of the world," a kind of pre-apocalypse, surely due to the emotional charge that this album can "donate."
In this album, we come across songs like "Enemies/Friends" with that sweet guitar introduction that is then overshadowed by drums that keep time perfectly. Here enters Sam Herlihy's voice which, as indicated in the booklet, is joyful, hopeful, broken, and so forth... The piece then ends epically with a sad and acclaimed repetition of various "in the end."
Another magnificent track is "66 Sleepers To Summer" with its magnificent start of violin and acoustic guitar, then comes the ballad "Don't Go To Pieces," the powerful and captivating single "The Red The White The Black The Blue," the folk rock of "George Washington."
"Nehemiah" (another single) with those yeah yeah yeah yeah that drag along with the violins... and the last "1776" which in the chorus slightly recalls "Starman" by the old David Bowie.
But beware!!! "The lost revolutions" are not over yet, if you wait, there's the ghost track that aggressively seals "the end" of the album.
From the titles and the lyrics, the atmospheres that Hope Of The States evoke, besides the apocalyptic ones, are also strongly reminiscent of the revolutions between the 18th and 19th centuries.
In short, what can I say, recommended for those who love BRITISH rock!
And let’s hope that they will delight us with a successor worthy of the debut.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Enemies/Friends (04:41)
Lately in the hospitals
The halfway homes and choking jails
There's people on the mend again
With hope to carry on again
It makes me feel that something's right
For everyone who tries to fight
No politics or dirty tricks
All standing up and shouting out
All the money in the world won't save you
We're coming home
All the prisons that you build won't hold us
Just let us go
Then I found a broken heart
With dusty wheezing thing won't start
I'll fix it up and watch it grow
And send it to a happy home
It don't take much to raise a smile
To push yourself the extra mile
I'll stand with you when things go wrong
And lie and say it's not too long
All the money in the world won't save you
We're coming home
All the prisons that you build won't hold us
Just let us go
Come on people
Keep your friends close
Your enemies won't matter in the end
Come on people
Keep your friends close
Your enemies won't matter in the end
In the end
In the end
05 The Red the White the Black the Blue (03:40)
Mouths of dust and ruptured windpipe
Fairytales for lying cheats.
they're lashing out like wolves in barbed wire.
Ring the bells and start the fires now.
The red white and the blue
Has always been what led you.
If you don't do something
They'll steal it all from under you.
Board decisions, bored children
Watch the world through gunsight eyes.
I hijack train wrecks, sell the wheels
No way out unless you steal it all.
The red white and the blue
Has always been what led you.
If you don't do something
They'll steal it all from under you.
You beat us black and blue,
We're coming back to find you.
The red white and the blue
Has always been what led you.
If you don't do something
They'll steal it all from under you.
10 Nehemiah (04:09)
Nehemiah, last survivor
In this cynical world.
Sparks come from anywhere,
It's the fire that matters.
Nehemiah sing to the storm,
Make it turn around.
It's all decided before you're born.
Hear us singing we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No self pity we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Friendly fire, burn the liars.
Don't feel like you're alone.
Let them all hide behind
Dead flags and old lies.
Nehemiah you were the leader,
We all just followed.
Sparks come from anywhere,
It's the fire that matters.
Hear us singing we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No self pity we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hear us singing we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No self pity we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
People come on make a stand.
Come on people if you try you can.
You're not alone when the lights go off.
We stand together when it all stops.
Hear us singing we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No self pity we sing:
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
People come on make a stand.
Come on people if you try you can.
You're not alone when the lights go off.
We stand together when it all stops.
12 1776 (14:53)
I'm all washed up at twenty
And it's all my fault.
If loves an illness
Then I hope I get it.
I got it wrong, I got it wrong, I got it wrong.
I'll spend the rest of my life
Trying to make it right.
Somewhere there's a fight.
We are fighting for what we lost.
Something that we find
Might not save us or make things right.
I hope I get the chance
To finish what I started
I've always felt like it might be too far.
I hope I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong.
I'm holding on, I'm holding out for something more.
Somewhere there's a fight.
We are fighting for what we lost.
Something that we find
Might not save us or make things right.
Somewhere there's a fight.
We are fighting for something else.
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