It has to be up there with the greatest of 2004’s travesties: Chichester’s brightest, Hope Of The States, received a relatively muted response to their incendiary debut album. Additionally, the tragic suicide of guitarist Jimmi Lawrence in 2004 – perhaps more publicised than the record itself - merely served to infuse The Lost Riots with an overwhelming sense of poignancy, thus eclipsing its true beauty and essence.
Having put this episode behind them, Hope Of The States are now getting down to the business of creating post-rock that’s palatable for the masses.
While The Lost Riots was an album of dizzying highs and despondent lows, Left is a consistent and well-considered set. In short, Sam Herlihy & Co. have moved away from their preoccupation with noise and created a celestial slice of accomplished rock. The good news? This is indie music that’s poppy without being sloppy.
‘January’ in particular is an autumnal, sombre, string-drenched wonder, while the yearning title-track boasts the epic, lush quality of Sigur Ros’s most structured work.
While the album is doubtlessly majestic and accomplished throughout, Left is bereft of a hit-'em-right-between-the-eyes anthem. Hope Of The States are a group blessed with truckloads of potential, but right now there’s a lack of immediacy that doesn’t quite set them apart from the indie masses.
Still, if the journey from The Lost Riots to Left is anything to go by, this band could take any direction. Will they in time become anthemic stadium rockers or meaningful, uncompromising noiseniks? Either way, things will always be delightfully interesting.