ALBUM REVIEW: Hoo Ha! – Bad//Dreems
Being lied to when you’re in school only leads to a student asking more questions, building a whole backlog of horrible emotions for being lied to, getting older, becoming jaded and bitter. But, there’s an opportunity for clarity amongst all of the negativity if you can channel it correctly; look at BAD//DREEMS for example, they made the critical choice to question, pay attention and observe what happened in the present and past in Australia. Now with their all new, all-questioning album Hoo Ha! they find the answers with artful post-punk and hyper-aware lyricism. With 14 tracks to set the record straight on anything they seem to be pissed off with, BAD//DREEMS look to figure out anything that gets under their skin.
In opening track Waterfalls the quartet approach with an egotistical character who cakes himself in an armour of his own superior opinion. Meanwhile vocalist Ben Marwe yells “I’m wonderful / I’m standing tall / I’m beautiful / Like waterfalls.” With his confidence palpable, guitars contract a contact high from his swagger; they personify his bowling strut. Soon after the inquisitive Jack is on the attack, angry and wondering of the present that could’ve been possible if the colonisation of Australia had not happened. They dare to envision a culture where aboriginal people aren’t mistreated, kids are taught the real history of their country and not distracted with misguided allegiance to a colonising king or queen. The reality that is presented feels much more like dystopia everyday.
Southern Heat finds more of that dystopia and bottles it with a faster bassline, speaking of festering capitalism and racism, mirroring desolate wastelands with suburbia. The quartet draw on plenty of dystopian literature to inspire the album’s theme as Australia grows closer to what you once thought you’d only be able to read about in a fictionalised novel. Toning down the fiction but keeping sickly real anxiety in Black Monday details the daily slog of a nine to five, or getting up to get the degree you never wanted, coming down on drugs you shouldn’t have consumed the night before with a screeching paranoia in the back of your mind. Guitars sweating just like you do in the morning after the night before, simply forcing their way through the track, ties things together just right.
Calling back to the 1900s and its staggering headlines, See You Tomorrow descends into obsessiveness, curtain twitching and the compulsive need to be clued up on the news. Shattering and rattling cymbals try to keep up with the speed of the news cycle, riffs loop with the endless ammunition to keep a constant. Halted by good old nostalgia in Godless, Marwe reflects on his childhood which is always an emotional endeavour. As he sings “I am godless” he feels lonely, unlocking the door on old memories as they spill out with the wiry teardrops of the accompanying guitar strings.
Even though the flag of Great Britain is shamelessly slapped upon Australia’s, it’s a wildly different experience. Yet the divide between the patriotism and disgust of monarchy and the right-wing is disturbingly similar. BAD//DREEMS cover what there is to be angry about in Australia if you weren’t already aware, they coat it all in dystopia and the mirroring metaphors they see everyday to translate the horror of their modern day.
Rating: 9/10
Hoo Ha! is out now via Farmer & The Owl/BMG.
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