The Winnipeg band Living Hour continue to quietly impress. The band's brand of dream pop is unassuming, and relatively simple, with straightforward tunes centered around vocalist Sam Sarty. Someday is Today is out now via Kanine Records and it's likely to earn this group some new fans, and siphon some more off from Jay Som who's a guest on this record.
Opener "Hold Me in Your Mind" unfurls with all the downbeat pleasures of early Mazzy Star without a trace of the blues, while "Middle Name" is even better. This one sort of threatens to rave up, but never quite does, preferring instead to balance the tension between the instruments and the rising melodic line to really charm. A collaboration with Jay Som, "Feelings Meeting" adds some feedback to the musicians' arsenal, letting the hook get sort of caught up in the fuzzy rush. There's a lot of languid grace to the selections on Someday is Today, and things work quite well. That said, "December Forever" and "Exploding Rain" really pleased this listener. These two serve up spry and peppy melodies that give the approach of Living Hour a little bit of heft.
At their best, Living Hour map out territory that seems similar to that ruled by Slowdive. But Living Hour are less interested in shoegaze, or even what remains of it in a style usually called dream-pop, than they are in easing into a melody and letting it sort of pull them forward, sometimes slowly. There's a uniformity of sound here on Someday is Today that makes a little of this go a long way, but there's also a lot of moments of real beauty, where the charms of the approach make up for anything you might find lacking overall.
Someday is Today is out now via Kanine Records.
[Photo: Living Hour Bandcamp]