"Feel the weight of the world grow / Let the fire die out and prepare night to follow / This immortal snow is unmoved / It knows no tarot card or god-fearing ire..."
The masterfully drawn melancholia and pinned evidence board of "Manchester By The Sea", by Vancouver Canada's artful rock storytellers Hope Slide, is something to behold as it sneaks into your psyche in slippery ways. If the evocative storytelling told by Calvin Jay's resonant voice part cold swagger and part hopeful romantic is the anchor, the hardwood core, then the wonderfully chamber pop opera-esque blend of violins against mournful piano is the lubricant to slip inside your head and heart and the tightly wound progressive indie rock punches is what settle in your tummy as an ache, first painful then satisfying.
The first few listens didn't enter my head and heart quite enough and I didn't feel essentially affected by the storytelling but the narrative here is so full of maze turns and bent carnival mirrors that it did get to me over time. The sound is dreadfully sad and pretty at the same time and I like the hollow kind of punk sound in spots, not hollow as empty but as sparse in a way where you feel the space around things. The middle break with Jay and Kerry Hickli harmonizing is everything and it, quite literally, feels like a key being turned.
The resulting emotional mayhem is so appreciated and felt. Upon my first couple of listens I felt a kind of Arcade Fire thing happening in terms of a kind of musical hall meets a vast indie rock meets folk pop thing happening but AF (over time) have felt kind of surface level and "Manchester By The Sea" is not surface level here. This track and how Hope Slide bring it runs more artfully abstract / surprising than your average AF fare and Calvin Jay's vocal countenance as author runs circles around Win Butler in terms of emotional depth.
In the end "Manchester By The Sea" (accompanied by an amazing Official Video) is like an emotional movie about loss and love lost that you want to see and read between the lines too. It is a track that exists on Hope Slide's first studio album (how fucking exciting!) dropping April 13th (2025) entitled "Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart" which I look forward to experiencing.
Hope Slide is comprised of:
Zane Klassen – Percussion/Various Instruments
Elena Massing – Violin/vocals
Fiona Sjaus – Violin
Jack Hanrahan – Bass/vocals
Calvin Jay – Vocals/Guitar/Saxophone
LINER NOTES (the short of it):
[What used to be the reclusive recording project by film school friends Zane Klassen and Calvin Jay, is now a six member must-watch collaboration. With two violin players (Elena Massing, Fiona Sjaus), woodwinds, and intricate piano, Hope Slide borrows from indie rock music of the early 2000’s (Arcade Fire, The National, Broken Social Scene), and adds a post-punk edge. On April 13th, 2025 their first studio record, Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart - a cathartic three-act story about love, letting go, and the costs of living in the city - will be released.]
Hope my words resonate with the band. In trying to find out more about these talented folks I stumbled upon a fantastic article / interview of them by Kyle Stewart. You can find it here (click here).
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/hopeslide
https://hopeslidemusic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090905341056
At some point, someone coined the term "distraught rock" which can be used to describe the sound of Hope Slide - overwhelmed by both misery and utter elation all at once. Much of vocalist/guitarist Calvin A. Jay's devastating lyricism reflects the need to overcome things. Soaring strings, saxophone, haunting harmonies, whimsical keys, and moody shoegaze-like guitar colour the emotional journey that, at times, feels like something out of an adulthood fable.
At some point, someone coined the term "distraught rock" which can be used to describe the sound of Hope Slide - overwhelmed by both misery and utter elation all at once. Much of vocalist/guitarist Calvin A. Jay's devastating lyricism reflects the need to overcome things. Soaring strings, saxophone, haunting harmonies, whimsical keys, and moody shoegaze-like guitar colour the emotional journey that, at times, feels like something out of an adulthood fable.
Hope Slide, Vancouver Canada, indie rock, post punk, balladic, evocative, Calvin Jay, violins, proggy breaks, album "Love Your Crooked Neighbour With Your Crooked Heart", "Manchester By The Sea",
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