ARTIST: Four Day Hombre
TITLE: Experiments In Living
LABEL: Alamo Music
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 197kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 43min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-03-13
RIP DATE: 2006-02-21
Track List
----------
01. The First Word Is The Hardest 4:20
02. Dont Go Gently 4:28
03. Single Room 4:15
04. Flame 3:45
05. Mr M 4:27
06. 13th Of The Month 3:57
07. The Boy With The Mended Heart 2:57
08. 1000 Bulbs 3:59
09. Inertia 5:32
10. Three Years 5:41
Release Notes:
Partially inspired by the book "Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living
1900-1939" by Virginia Nicholson, the album is exactly this: an exercise in
freedom outside the mainstream music industry, and the right to create
something to prove that it deserves to exist. Nostalgia, sadness and a pure
and innocent hope that things really can get better are themes that run
through this album. Its sound is classic: eschewing the æloud and the nowÆ;
its delicate and intimate melodies blend with enraptured moments of
intensity.
The First Word Is The Hardest - The recording captures the sound of
Experiments in Living better than any other: a driving mix of fracturable
atmospherics, stunning vocals, repetitive beats and a final euphoric
release all smothered in Neil Young-esque feedback. The song is an
outstretched hand to someone carrying a hundred tons of shit on their
shoulders - someone who is repeatedly running at a windowpane unable to see
the glass, when all they need is a friend to open it and let them through.
Flame - A simple alt-country song of hope. Delicate and beguiling, its
understated production and heartfelt sentiment makes it a real grower. It
was written with a sense of clarity only found from being in a field on a
clear day or from drinking 10 pints of Stella.
Thirteenth Of The Month - A fragile piano line leads into this stately
waltz, Si's superb vocal drifting in and out of a bed of pillowy reverb,
sonic treats and statuesque guitars. Simon comments about the song: "A
period of life when my relationship seemed to end on exactly the same day
every month. The monthly cycle everybody must obey - æit's funny how
satellites govern the way we areÆ. No idea where the dressing gown line
came from."
Three Years - Like the E-Street band trying desperately to rock out through
a haze of red wine and sleeping pills. A truly moving vocal performance
expertly cushioned by barroom piano, woozy guitar and Hammond. Simon: "I
wrote the lyrics and the tune whilst driving to my family away from Leeds
and all the mess and darkness it held at the time. In the rehearsal room
the song just happened perfectly - one of those where you all sit down play
it twice and it's finished."
Inertia - Beginning with the gentlest of out of time guitars, and gritty
broken vocals - erratic bursts of electronic noise and beautiful backing
vocals slowly and gently mutate into the loudest and gnarliest of guitar
freakouts: grinning defiance with the deftest of touches. Si on Inertia -
"Driving in a van at 4:30am on your way back from a gig knowing you've got
to be at work at 7:30. Oh things could be so different if the planets would
just shift an inch or two. Or the record industry didn't move with the
agility and speed of a maimed pig."
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