Hitchcock's Regret: endless_intermission

Tue 20th Mar, 2007 in Music Reviews

If nothing fuels artistic success like pain and suffering, then Hitchcock’s Regret’s third album, endless_intermission, is destined to be a winner. Singer/songwriter Mark Moldre spun his own health-driven annus horribilis into a record for those grownups among us who still seek out and treasure meaningful lyrics, hooky melodies and guitar lines that made Australian Guitar magazine sit up and burble that this is “expertly delivered pop with instant familiarity”. It’s no exaggeration: the album’s filled with songs that you’ll dig the first time, and then want to hear over and over again. They get stuck in your brain like some kind of South American tapeworm larvae, but in a totally, like, more wholesome way.

JJJ adoptee Happiness falls into this category, its loping guitar and spacey Kaoss effects underpinning a tale about an ailing man who suddenly finds lots of spare time to consider his life: “I’m waking up at dawn / I’m tired of feeling sickly / sick of feeling tired…” Like the best of all angsty songs though, this ends on an uplifting note: “The seconds become hours and time keeps marching on / open up my curtains and start letting in the sun.” Moldre’s husky/sweet voice (think Mr E from the Eels, but a little chirpier) is the perfect vehicle for such intimate and bittersweet songs as Good Night Chet (a paen to jazz-great Chet Baker and his ignominious fall), Nothing Really Matters (makes me think of a nocturnal ride on a haunted carousel), and the closing track Last Day/End Credits, which is a harrowing Wilco-esque trip through, you guessed, a man’s last day on earth.

Sounds too depressing? Never fear. After the very short instrumental intro Milk & Secrets, we get blown back on our heels by the ragged vocal assault of Your Apathy Is Killing Me, a song that rocks out live but translates very well to album mode thanks to singalong “oooh-hoo-hoo!” choruses and a simple but very effective and catchy melody. This is a standout track, a big guitar-and-vocal driven song that deserves to be one of the best-selling singles of the year. Your Big Mistake is another example of this… the gentle tinkling intro promises some sort of proggy exercise in whispy self-indulgence, but in fact what you get is a soaring anthemic piece with great harmonies and thumpin’ big drums. The atmosphere is kept constantly circling and morphing by superb performances from Hitchcock’s moveable feast of musicians, including Shane Pex, Paul Grant, David Pex, Adrian Chapman, Darren Pedley, the aforementioned drum guru Tim Powles and all-round Sydney power-pop legend, Michael Carpenter.

Penultimate track The Great Escape is a real find. It starts out with a gloomy and foreboding Hitchcockian build, then launches into truly frightening distorted guitar riffs that are big and bold enough to satisfyingly blow the speakers in any lounge room you wish to name. This song’s just another example of how endless_intermission seeks to continually surprise; not in an “aren’t we clever” kind of way, but in a genuine effort to push their musicianship further and further beyond its previous boundaries.

It’s an awesome process to eavesdrop on; these guys are only just beginning to hit their stride, and it’s anyone’s guess how far they can take it from here. For mine, I’m just very very happy to go along for the ride.