Hard Quartet – Hard Quartet – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Hard Quartet are a new band, seemingly resulting from the jams of Emmet Kelly, Matt Sweeney, Stephen Malkmus and Jim White.  From the word go, they sound released from their ‘day jobs’ and they are just here to rock out.  This could be very tedious but the results are anything but.   Chrome Mess is a statement of intent, scuzzy, rough guitars introduce a glorious, pounding rocker.  Many songs have echoes of Pavement, with Earth Hater sounding like their rough cousin.  Heel Highway is a vintage Malkmus-ian slow groove, later Hey and Thug Dynasty have echoes of that band’s more laid-back, moodier fare.

There’s also a real penchant for the Rolling Stones evident here.  The Sweeney-sung Rio’s Song is one of several laidback Stones like rockers.  It’s the type of thing you wish the Stones could still do, with a superb guitar solo, and special mention to the video, which blatantly rips off the Waiting On A Friend video.  The good time classic rocking continues on Our Hometown Boy, this time with Kelly on lead vocals, while later Action for Military Boys perfectly distils the essence of early 70s Stones.  They really go for it on the rough-as-fuck sounding Renegade, which is like Neil Young goes punk, with an unhinged-sounding vocal from Malkmus.

The album is far from one-dimensional, Sweeney’s Killed by Death has that wonderfully effortless rock ballad feel, and some really fine guitar work, you forget how accomplished Stephen Malkmus is on guitar.  Six Deaf Rats is equally laidback with strange lyrics about “sleeping in those high-heeled shoes,” accompanied by some excellently subtle guitar work.  Jacked Existence is another Sweeney-sung track with more subtle guitar, like the unsung but great Pavement tracks, while North of the Border has a gloriously rocky plod.

Although there’s nearly too much of it at 15 tracks, it’s a very enjoyable album to listen to, and for Stephen Malkmus, it’s some of the best music he’s put out in years.

Rio’s Song