Bark Your Head Off, Dog | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 6, 2018 | |||
Recorded | 2017 | |||
Studio | The Headroom (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) | |||
Genre | Indie rock | |||
Length | 40:09 | |||
Label | Saddle Creek | |||
Producer | Hop Along, Joe Reinhart | |||
Hop Along chronology | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10 [1] |
Metacritic | 81/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
The A.V. Club | B− [4] |
DIY | [5] |
Drowned in Sound | 9/10 [6] |
Exclaim! | 9/10 [7] |
Pitchfork | 8.0/10 [8] |
The Skinny | [9] |
Under the Radar | 7/10 [10] |
Bark Your Head Off, Dog is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band Hop Along. It was self-produced, written over the course of 2016 and 2017, recorded at The Headroom in Philadelphia during 2017, and released on April 6, 2018. [11]
The album's cover artwork is an abstract landscape portrait painted by frontperson Frances Quinlan. [12]
The album was recorded at the Headroom, guitarist Joe Reinhart's home recording studio in Philadelphia. [13]
The sound on Bark Your Head Off, Dog has been described as "warmer", "more spacious" and more "vibrantly diverse" than its predecessor. [14] [15] Additionally, the album uses more "danceable" rhythms, and its opening track "How Simple" has been called "one of the band's poppiest moments". [16] [17] [18] The album continues the band's usual blend of grunge, punk rock and power pop, and is also said to contain elements of progressive rock, folk rock, [19] and lofi music. [20] [21] The album also makes use of unorthodox instruments such as harps, pizzicato, mandolins, fiddles, [22] electric piano and vocoders. [23]
Guitarist Joe Reinhart utilized "math emo" guitar techniques such as tapping, which drew comparisons to Algernon Cadwallader, his previous band. NPR wrote that the guitarist employed "twinkly, expressive guitar riffs that defined his defunct emo band Algernon Cadwallader and made that music feel unbridled and joyous." [24] Some of the album's guitar rhythms have drawn comparisons to Paramore. [25] [26]
The lyrics on the album have been described as feeling "impressionistic". [27]
Bark Your Head Off, Dog was met with "universal acclaim" by critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the release received an average score of 81 based on 14 reviews. [2]
Music aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 79 out of 100 score based on a critical consensus of 20 reviews, [28] and, after aggregating a number of 2018's year-end best-albums lists, placed the album at #43 in the resultant ranking of the best 100 albums of the year. [29]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "How Simple" | 3:48 |
2. | "Somewhere a Judge" | 3:52 |
3. | "How You Got Your Limp" | 2:36 |
4. | "Not Abel" | 4:36 |
5. | "The Fox in Motion" | 3:59 |
6. | "One That Suits Me" | 5:16 |
7. | "What the Writer Meant" | 4:07 |
8. | "Look of Love" | 6:12 |
9. | "Prior Things" | 5:43 |
Chart (2018) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Heatseekers Albums ( Billboard ) [30] | 2 |
US Independent Albums ( Billboard ) [31] | 9 |
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Quinlan hasn't backed away from her first love, even as her band has found itself becoming a fan favorite and critical darling. The artwork for Hop Along's most recent album, 2018's Bark Your Head Off, Dog, is an abstract landscape portrait that would make Quinlan's painterly heroes proud.
Though one may assume the resulting album would be a return-to-basics affair, the setup allowed Hop Along to use their long-standing DIY impulses to craft a record with an expanded sonic palette that includes strings, danceable rhythms, and orchestral-pop arrangements—all while maintaining the power and frankness of their earlier work.
'Bark Your Head Off, Dog' sees Hop Along at their most vibrantly diverse. It still features the grunge and punk-inflected tones that coloured its predecessors, with rollicking guitar lines and soaring power-pop hooks, but there's also added intricacies, from sweeping and lush orchestral arrangements to blissful harmonies.