Singles

The Hours - Back When You Were Good

Bruce Turnbull 22/01/2007

Rating: 2/5

The Hours, in my opinion, have a rather speculative name. For you see I would find it hard to imagine myself listening to them for that amount of time, and their name would rather represent the time I'd invest in listening to music that's autonomy is to sieve the idiosyncratic sensibilities of its sound, into ears craving originality, not banality. Having said that, Antony Genn has been involved with eminent artists such as Elastica and Pulp, therefore earning my respect to harvest an opinion based on both credibility and ingenuity.

“Back When You Were Good” might as well be an ode to Brit-pop's glory days. There is nothing particularly new or engaging here, except of course the omnipresent orchestration, which is sadly lacking in the majority of modern music. However, this is a credible attribute of The Hours' musical make up. The sentimental vocals and reflective lyrics are ostensibly agreeable, but when compared to the likes of Brand New and to a lesser extent Snow Patrol they just grate on deaf, bored ears. Damien Hirst and Jason Beard have done an interesting job on the artwork, which unfortunately represents little of the song's content but doesn't fail to be eye-catching, despite the background: a brash ocean of shocking pink.

Ostentatious and over-simple, “Back When You Were Good” has an effective chorus and pleasing resonance, which will no doubt grab the attention of many a Performing Arts student. It's just a shame the music is not as dextrous as the subject.

Released: 22/01/07