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It is rare to come across an album encapsulating various musical stylings and still boasts coherence and a pleasurable pop listening experience. The Portland-based quartet Hockey achieves that balance on its debut studio album, Mind Chaos.
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When they stretch out, they get intriguing, if mixed, results.
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Derivative? Maybe, but at least it’s deftly derived and delivered with purpose and spunk.
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Originality niggles aside, the vitality and wit these Oregon upstarts display on this first LP is enough to recommend them to anyone interested in hearing a quality good-time band. Hockey seem to actually give a puck, and that’s reason enough to like ‘em for now.
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On their debut LP, Mind Chaos, Hockey seem to be having a little fun with it, keeping things casual, cracking jokes at their own expense. You'd be surprised how well it works.
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They do little to advance on the template, but at their best they produce some thrilling pop music, and while failing to create a consistently brilliant album
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Hockey are not yet the finished article and are still finding their sound, but judging from Mind Chaos they're having a bloody laugh looking for it.
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Grubin's wordy lyrics will pique the interest of other shy types, but it's the music's freewheeling sparkiness that really hits home.
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UncutWhile they could use a second tune, this has bags of vitality and personality. [Sep 2009, p.84]
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It's the enthusiasm of the performances that makes Mind Chaos work, but the fact that it's always dialed up so high also works against the album, as though Hockey is insisting a bit too much that they're fun.
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With a name as dumb as Hockey, these Portland hipsters tempt me to dismiss them as having overdosed on irony. But to their credit, there are a few decent new-wavey pop hooks here.
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The problem is not so much with the contents as with the packaging. ‘Mind Chaos’ is a pop record, and, as a pop record, it kind of works – it’s full of chart-friendly singles and sung by a bunch that are bound to find themselves doted on by 13-year-olds.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 9
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Mixed: 2 out of 9
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Negative: 0 out of 9
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DB.Nov 7, 2009
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Feb 13, 2014
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RiotC.Dec 15, 2009It could be much better if they worked more.