A new album release from Hi/Jack delivers a gritty rock and roll soundscape that blends in loads of punk rock, alternative rock, and a great garage approach that all captures a certain character that's delivered with everything, and this ends up being what you get attached to right from the start.
The Everything You Know Is Yesterday album certainly does indeed bring together many hard rock influences all in one fat record that hits hard when it wants to, but also has color and persona when it wants as well.
The guitar tone alone on this record gives you that great garage fuzz rock feel and it's the energy that's captured on this record that gives it it's amazing drive and electric presence because it almost feels like some, or all of these songs were recorded live on the floor and the players are just feeding off of each other's energy the entire time.
Here's the thing, this band is a duo which pretty much tells you this was not recorded live on the floor, but I'll tell you right now, listening to this record has that feel to it and it makes you want to see it live because if the energy is captured so well on record, then seeing it live would probably be amazing.
With each new track you get hints of some of the rest of the record, but you also get little bits of new approaches and influences that show face, and this is part of what makes this record so massive.
These come from a couple of guys who definitely have a love for what they do, and you can hear that in the songs themselves.
These tracks have a way of sort of thrashing out but not in a metal way, more of a punk and rock sort of way and this is also one of the records that you want to listen to from beginning to end because if you only hear a few tracks then you're not really getting the spectrum of what the record has to offer as a whole.
This was endlessly fun, showed massive charisma, loads of levels, and this kind of rawness that gives the songs an unstoppable aesthetic.
What's cool is that you also get a lot of other stuff throughout the record like classic rock, pop rock, and more but this just goes to show the range of how these guys create their music and most likely what they grew up listening to and how all of those bands played a part and what this record turned out to be.
You get a lot of memorable hooks and vocal sections as well that have a way of bouncing around in your head for hours or even days after the songs have ended and the only way to see she ate that is to go and listen to the songs again which, in my opinion, is just smart songwriting but I think this duo does it naturally.
What I'm interested in is how they put this all together exactly. How do you have just two guys that produce a full band record that sounds like you're watching someone rock out on stage right in front of you?
Well, for one thing, these two have been doing it since 2014 so they've got a decade under their belts in terms of creating full-bodied and energetic rock songs which I'm sure helps hone in their style and approach.
I would suggest listening to this album from beginning to end and in true, kind of punk rock style, the 12-track record spans a clean 33 minutes long which turns out to be plenty in terms of how much you're able to soak in in that time.
The point is, you have the time to listen to this record and you damn well should especially if you're a fan of classic punk, thrash rock, classic rock, pure rock, and roll, or anything that makes you want to sing along with your fists in the air.
An outstanding blend of rock subgenres packed into one robust album, check this out as soon as you can, don't be afraid to turn it up, and remember where you heard it first.