{"id":24591,"date":"2023-02-04T05:30:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T10:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24591"},"modified":"2022-12-20T15:11:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T20:11:25","slug":"album-review-librarians-with-hickeys-handclaps-tambourines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/04\/album-review-librarians-with-hickeys-handclaps-tambourines\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Librarians with Hickeys \u2013 Handclaps &#038; Tambourines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24592\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/librarians_handclaps.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/librarians_handclaps.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/librarians_handclaps-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/librarians_handclaps-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Their name might be on the unfortunate side, but Librarians with Hickeys know how to craft a winning tune. The trio engages in some straightforward truth-in-labeling on their latest release, titling the 12-song collection <i>Handclaps &amp; Tambourines<\/i>. That tells you a great deal of what you need t6o know about the music therein. So I\u2019ll simply fill you in on a few other salient details.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Better Get Home\u201d opens the album with a solid beat, some tasty combo organ and spirited unison shouts of \u201cHey!\u201d Can\u2019t go wrong with that approach, and they don\u2019t. Strong melodies and assured playing and arrangement are offered up in ample supply throughout the record. The Rickenbacker jangle of \u201cGhost Singer\u201d will appeal to fans of Velvet Crush. There\u2019s some breezy vibes on \u201cFairground,\u201d a slightly darker and more contemplative tune that still works well in the context of a largely peppy set of tunes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan\u2019t Wait \u2018Till Summer\u201d has the feel of prime Beach Boys, if the southern California heroes had backing by, say, the Smithereens. \u201cLady Overdrive\u201d feels more like what we might expect form Midwestern alternarockers (Urge Overkill, Cheap Trick, Material Issue). The shimmering \u201cStumbling Down Memory Lane\u201d is a rockier rethink of the Left Banke without the baroque elements. \u201cWhen We Were young\u201d is more in that vein, with effective and subtle use of Mellotron (and, yes, handclaps). The album finsihes as strong as it starts: \u201cMe and My Big Mouth\u201d skillfully balances winsome melancholy and an inviting melody.<\/p>\n<p>That variety is part of the strength of Librarians with Hickeys: they rock right, but they don\u2019t write the same song over and over. <i>Handclaps &amp; Tambourines<\/i> is heartily recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their name might be on the unfortunate side, but Librarians with Hickeys know how to craft a winning tune. The trio engages in some straightforward truth-in-labeling on their latest release, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[4301],"class_list":["post-24591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-librarians-with-hickeys","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24593,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591\/revisions\/24593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}