For one band containing only four people, Houndmouth makes an awful lot of noise. While that neither would nor should be the only thing one notices about this band, it most certainly is the first.
After that comes the joy.
Even in the more ruminative moments and minor key breaks, there’s an optimistic spirit that carries a Houndmouth song. The internal glee this quartet obviously takes in the singing and playing of its music raises what it does above certain songwriting and performance clichés that might otherwise undermine its efforts. This band has never shied away from doing what’s been done before, nor saying what’s been said; it’s just that it does its version of these things better than most others could, because they’re so happy to be doing them.
So no, Houndmouth didn’t attempt to re-write any playbooks on its latest album, Little Neon Limelight. Most of the record’s sound comes straight out of mid-70s radio rock. If Neil Young gives it a spin, he’ll likely approve. So will Joe Walsh. Levon Helm would’ve loved this band, too, I’m sure. But before writing Houndmouth off as another set of retro rockers aping old gods due to a lack of fresh ideas, acknowledge first that the mid-70s were a damn good time in rock and roll, and a band must plant its flag somewhere, right? Or anyway, a rock band must, if they’re to be worth a damn.
Remember, radio rock once ruled the world, though today it is a near-bottomless pit of unlistenable dog shit. Instead of actually being fun, it appears someone, somewhere, came up with the idea that what qualifies as “rock and roll” for a radio audience should instead simply sound like what’s supposed to be fun. People give Nickelback a lot of shit, but credit where it’s due: they figured out that actual fun doesn’t matter, so long as the illusion of fun is there. The rock songs on your radio don’t need rhythm, or a good sound, or solid playing, or a modicum of creativity, so long as they sound like they have all those things. Dave Grohl knows this, too. He was just in a better band first.
The music on Little Neon Limelight, therefore, won’t be on the radio today the way it once might have been, regardless of its source material. But fuck all that, because this music is actually a good time, and actually good, a step further down the road from Houdmouth’s 2013 debut, From The Hills Below the City, and in a more sophisticated direction.
A slap-dash quality to certain aspects of this record doesn’t quite come off the way these folks hoped it might (there’s a difference between a charming mistake and a necessary leave-in), but the songs on Little Neon Limelight are of a higher standard than any “just fucking around” band could accomplish. The ballads in particular are great, hinting at room for growth when Houndmouth ages out of its youthful enthusiasm. “For No One” and “Gasoline” showcase enough rueful goodness to counter-balance the much more plentiful upbeat numbers, and album-closing “Darlin’” features enough clean, reverb-drenched guitar-playing to make any bluesman smile. The louder numbers pivot on Telecaster runs and three-part sing-alongs about taking off or drug and crime sprees, but there’s a soulfulness and depth of feeling to the softer ones hinting that Houndmouth knows there’s a time and place for rocking, and a time and place to chill afterward. That there are other things in life, really, and integrity one of them.
It’s not hard to imagine an alternate universe in which Houndmouth lived out its days as the best bar band in its hometown of Louisville. With so many songs about California and hitting the road in their repertoire, it’s clear they’d prefer that didn’t happen, but it’s similarly plain that writing and playing is what’s most important. The very soul of rock and roll itself, in other words, as opposed to “rock and roll,” and so long as Houndmouth gets to play their kind of rock and roll for people who want to hear it, they seem happy to be wherever that leads.
Which brings us back to the omnipresent joy behind the noise, the unrelenting happiness below the gold-toned rocking, on each athletic guitar lead, with each shouted chorus, and with each murmured verse about cowards and dirty sons of a bitches. Houndmouth’s Little Neon Limelight features great playing and solid writing, but perhaps neither would hold up as well without the singular joy binding these aspects, and the band itself, together. Thankfully, another young rock group remembered the cardinal rule of rock and roll: this shit is supposed to be fun.
Rating: 4/5