The Spook School - Try To Be Hopeful

It probably isn't controversial to suggest that the best music is a marriage of passion and skill.  On Try To Be Hopeful, everything we knew and liked about The Spook School is back again, but is bigger and better this time around.  The hooks are plentiful and well defined, the noise is bigger, the nuances better constructed, and the social-political messages near and dear to their hearts are more upfront.  And when a band is as good as this Edinburgh quartet, this all adds up to a top flight pop album.

Thematically the album addresses issues of gender identification, stereotypes and narrow expectations.  The commentary is clear-eyed, blunt, and at times biting.  But the delivery is declarative rather than complaining, resulting in a message that is bold and hopeful.  Musically, the guitars bristle, buzz and crunch in a satisfying fashion.  This is a burly sound that should bring to mind The Buzzcocks and The Wolfhounds -- fist pumping noise pop that commands your feet to move.

Try To Be Hopeful is out now via Fortuna POP!







The Spook School is Nye Todd, Adam Todd, Anna Cory, and Niall McCamley.

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