Hal live at The Limelight, Belfast

Pop. It's become such a grubby little word. Transient, disposable, ephemeral, product, ‘Pop’ no longer signifies a particular type of music, it has become instead a term of derision. Yet there was a time when ‘Pop Music’ meant so much more, when people created it because they wanted to connect, because they cared. Hal remember that time and, with their debut album, created a record that captured all the feelings of dreamy-eyed, stupefying, fucked-up love.
If lyrically the record was messy and adolescent, musically it was mature and assured. Lovingly produced, and with the beautiful falsetto of Dave Allen carrying the band’s sun drenched harmonies, the Hal sound was polished and pristine. Shorn of studio embellishment, one had to wonder just how they would refashion their music for a live audience. The opener ‘My Eyes Are Sore’ provided an emphatic answer. Studio sheen is replaced with a grit and an earthy sense of soul which had hitherto been hidden.
‘I Sat Down’ and, in particular, ‘Worry About The Wind’ are sublime. Tonight’s gig, the first of the tour, sees the band debut some new tracks, including ‘Tonight’, a stomping glam-tinged number. The remaining new songs may not represent any great departure from what Hal have produced thus far, but this is no bad thing. What we get are deceptively simple melodies which, like some half-remembered dream, are at once new and yet achingly familiar. This is honest music, yearning and heartfelt and strong. This is pop music.