"Why we a Dub Make an album of Happy Hour? Because we wanted to bring out the many musical details that were still to be discovered and uncovered in the songs,” explains producer Ben Mckone. Logically, because Hollie Cook's bright voice is so present in her music that it covers a lot of what is happening musically in the background. That is why there is nowhappy hour in Dub“ (Merge), the Dubversion of their 2022 Lovers Rock album Happy Hour. Nice because I love Dubversions and I still had the instrumental and Dub-Versions of their Prince Fatty productions in ear. But what a disappointment! Unfortunately, "Happy Hour In" is missing Dub' the musical power and inventiveness that characterized Cook's earlier work, particularly that produced by Prince Fatty. The production and instrumentation are technically flawless, but formal excellence does not make good music. There's happy hour in Dub There are definitely moments of brilliance, the sometimes beautiful arrangements and the skillful mixing are impressive - yes, the details Mckone mentioned actually exist - but the album as a whole remains pretty bloodless. Apart from that, the strings and synth pads as well as cheesy background harmonies, which repeatedly conjure up the typical Lovers Rock atmosphere, are simply annoying. But that may be an entirely subjective assessment. I don't like hits, no matter what genre and musical culture they are. All the more amazing, however, how inspiring and varied Prince Fatty once interpreted Lovers Rock. But it is precisely against this background that "Happy Hour in Dub“ unfortunately only lose. And it really makes me wonder why Cook and Fatty aren't recording an album together again.
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Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub
4 Responses to “Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub"
I am excited. The record came this week, but hasn't been unpacked and listened to yet. Since I'm a completeist at Hollie Cook and have all of their vinyl records on the shelves, I couldn't just stop now, especially since it's an "in." Dub“ acts. I'm still looking forward to it. Thank you for the honest review, which already makes sense to me.
Sobering all along the line! I was hoping for a lot more. The earlier ones Dubs by Prince Fatty are unattainable. Hollie Cook's new album disappointingly didn't turn out to be a smash hit.
Unfortunately I feel the same way! I've already waved through the VocalAlbum and not to any DubVersion hoped, let alone thought of it. The "problem" for me, too, is that the albums with Prince Fatty have raised the bar to world records and almost everyone else could only fail.
They actually exist here too, the “brilliant moments” and the “beautiful arrangements” and that too DubMixing unfolds its magic here and there, but I suspect that the musicians have also been replaced to a large extent and unfortunately don't have as much "bite" as their predecessors.
By the way, I don't like Schlager at all either ;-) …………….. lemmi
Now listen to the whole album in peace via headphones. I'm with Lemmi, there are good moments. In the middle I was temporarily quite taken with it, but then everything just ripples along until it just stops. One or two songs can certainly be found for a mixtape - which I also like - but overall it's all too lax. A pity.