If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever. We have to hand it to George Orwell, author of the much-quoted supposition above, in addition to being a gifted, perceptive writer, his future gazing was rarely too wide of the mark. Admittedly, 2020 has felt more like being slowly suffocated by a downy pillow, forever, but we recognise the sentiments. Maybe though, just maybe, things are on the turn…
The Heavy Hours certainly haven’t abandoned hope. In a year where it’s been all too possible to be overwhelmed by doom and gloom, the Ohio quartet have released two fine singles – the tender Ache, and debut single Don’t Walk Away, co-written with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys – and are staking a pitch on the modern rock landscape somewhere equidistant from The Lumineers, Kings Of Leon and Deer Tick. Desperate Days, the quartet’s third single, premiering today on Louder, maintains their winning streak, being a timely reminder that no matter what obstacles are erected to slow us on our journey, we all have the capacity to overcome, recalibrate and push on to new horizons.
“Desperate Days is the light of the sun after a storm, the reward that comes after hope during hard times,” the band state. “It’s a song we wrote during our quarantine experience; it’s all about the silver linings of this strange year. We sent ideas and melodies over the phone to each other, wrote the lyrics to it on a rainy day in Ohio, and then recorded the track on a rainy day in Woodstock, New York.”
Having amassed a repertoire of over 100 songs across their three-year existence, the biggest problem lying ahead for the quartet – vocalist Michael Marcagi, guitarist AJ Yorio, bassist Jonathan Moon and drummer Ian Malott – might possibly be whittling down that impressive sonic arsenal into a 12-14 track album for release next year. But er, let’s not jump the gun, let’s get 2020 out of the way first, shall we?
