Hope Of The States
The Lost Riots

THE REVIEW

Brilliant debut for the British band Hope Of The States. Their album, released on August 27th and listened to today, made me exclaim: "Wow... yes yes... this is exactly my kind of music!".
Simple yet determined, melodic and engaging without ever falling into melancholy, this is essentially what emerges from "The Lost Riots" (produced by Ken Thomas, the same who works with Sigur Ros). A mix of grit, anger, intensity, and melody characterizes this band, formed at the end of 2000 in Chichester.

Their debut single, "The Red The White The Black The Blue," features vocals reminiscent of Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics and expresses a true and typical "rock" energy, 3 minutes and 40 seconds of dry, decisive, and driving rock, much like the opening track "The Black Amnesias," which starts with a delicate guitar arpeggio before giving way to drums, violins, bass, and distortion, making this track (almost 5 minutes of instrumental) a strong anthem to the psychedelic rock'n'roll of 2000.
Essentially, as you continue listening to this work, it becomes evident that the presence of ballads is the strong point of the album, with "Me Ves Y Sufres" definitely taking center stage. A 5-and-a-half minute ecstasy, piano, strings, very delicate voice, very light bass, drums that come in decisively only towards the end, in short... this track is a mix of all those characteristics a pop ballad needs to be perfect...
Noteworthy also are "Don't Go To Pieces" (with a sweet piano intro and drums that come in only at certain parts of the track, the emotion these 5 minutes manage to convey is incredible...) and "Goodhorsehymn" (starting with organ, then violins, piano, hard, dry drum but not heavy, it slightly recalls the style of the magnificent Kent... this is indeed pop-rock!) "Black Dollar Bills" is a real delirium, an ecstasy, an incredible 7-minute emotion, almost a "Champagne Supernova" of the new millennium or a "747" of 2004. Spine-chilling.
The closure is entrusted to "1776" (at the end of which there is a hidden track full of adrenaline and extremely pleasant), a great track in itself, which doesn’t depart much from the rest of the album and adheres to the standard set by the previous 11 tracks, light pop-rock, exciting, of incredible quality, never trivial, never excessively melancholic like that of fellow countrymen Coldplay, indeed...

This album can be seen as a synthesis of what Kent is (highlighting also a certain similarity in some vocal parts), that is, a gritty, energetic band yet capable of conveying emotions with very sweet melodies during the immersion in the sound of this record... a must-have for those who love melodic pop and for those who love a tense, angry rock that mixes, with excellent results, with "easy-listening" arrangements and sections, making this possibly the best debut of 2004.