"I HAVE A FEVER, and the only prescription... is more cowbell." Well Mr. Walken, PRE's Hope Freaks is just for you. It is full of detuned guitars and even more cowbell. In fact, Hope Freaks may be a concept album revolving around the cowbell. PRE shows that cowbell is pretty much necessary for any type of music. It may make it goofy, but it works.
The only problem with this album is that it's 20 minutes but about a fourth of it consists of fillers. I noticed that a track "Not Necessary" is pretty much one riff played over and over. What a convenient title! And there are a few tracks that have no vocals. Maybe a little too much cowbell...
Either way, it's a really good album. If you give it a more focused listen, you'll find that there are some pretty technical yet awesome riffs and songs off this album. I can't exactly point them out off-hand but, you'll definitely find them. "Teenage Lakes", which is the so called "single" of Hope Freaks is probably one of the best tracks off the album. It's poppy for a PRE song. No, there's no melody, but it has that verse-chorus-verse song structure and repetition that no wave bands of today are missing.
I wouldn't really recommend it to fans of serious music. But....... I'd recommend it if you're into PRE's last album. Except I probably wouldn't need to recommend it to you. Who am I kidding, you're probably at the record store right now buying this.
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