| Painted Shut | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | May 4, 2015 | |||
| Recorded | 2015, Headroom Studios, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 39:54 | |||
| Label | Saddle Creek | |||
| Producer |
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| Hop Along chronology | ||||
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Painted Shut is the third studio album by American indie rock band Hop Along, released on May 4, 2015 through Saddle Creek Records.
Painted Shut was co-produced, engineered and mixed by John Agnello (who has perviously worked with Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth) and the band themselves in early 2015 at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, and at Fluxivity Studios in Brooklyn. [3] Lead vocalist Frances Quinlan stated that much of the album was tracked live. [4] The album was recorded over a period of one month. [5] "Waitress" was released as a single from the album. The band toured the US in support of the album in Spring of 2015. [6]
Pitchfork likened Painted Shut's style to the "romantic, middle-American indie" of artists such as Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley, while crediting punk rock for the band's "energy". [7] Correspondingly, Marcy Donelson AllMusic set forth the album's style as "punk-spirited indie rock". [8] Rachel Brodsky Spin said the album contains "guitar-driven" tracks and "pop-oriented melodies with a voice that sounds like it could use a soothing throat lozenge". [9] Additionally, the album has been said to include elements of country. [10] The album's guitar riffs have been described as "melodic" and "sometimes angular", and have been compared to late-1990s emo and "Built To Spill-style rock". [11] According to Phillip Cosores of Consqeuence, "The guitars, played by bassist Tyler Long and the rhythm and lead pair of Frances Quinlan and Joe Reinhart, find distinct, warm ways to play off each other, rarely falling into stereotypical rock band traps." The album's seventh track "Powerful Man" makes use of bar chords and the palm-muted and plucked guitar work. Mark Quinlan's drum work on the album has been described as "highly technical," and makes use of start-stop rhythms, such as on the album's sixth track, “Texas Funeral.” [12] Stereogum said the album's tracks "build up, layer upon layer upon layer, adding things gradually until they explode in a fiery passion." The album features distorted guitars and incorporates elements of Americana. [13] [14] [15] The album makes use of unorthodox instruments, such as an electric sitar in the intro of "Waitress". [16] Additionally, the album's fifth track "Happy To See Me" is an acoustic track that has been described as "stripped back to the bone" and reminiscent of the band's freak folk roots. [17] Additionally, the album contains elements of “traditional” blues rock. [18] Frances Quinlan’s vocal performance on the album is characterized as alternating between "an abrasive snarl and a smooth croon.” [19]
The album's lyrical subject matter explores topics such as poverty, greed, abuse, guilt, grief, nostalgia, regret and mental illness. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] The album's fourth track "Waitress" was written about a time Quinlan ran into an old friend while working in a restaurant. They explained, “It’s about one of the first times when I looked at somebody and felt the distaste in the air [...] I mean, I could have been making it up. You don’t know what people think about you, but just being in a situation where you know someone has reason to be disgusted with you. And I was just trying to do my job. It was one of the first times I felt really small." [25] The album's fifth track "Happy To See Me" has been called a "ballad of caustic nostalgia." [26] The album's seventh track "Powerful Man" is based on an experience Quinlan had as a teenager, where they claim to have witnessed a young child being physically abused by their father. [27] Quinlan admitted that the track was the first time they had felt uneasy about sharing lyrics, due to their personal nature. They said, "There’s part of me that thinks, is anyone going to care if I yell at this man? [...] There is something about parents hitting their kids, it’s just such a weird thing that we allow [...] The craziest thing was he saw us, looked us in the face, and had no reaction. It just didn’t register that we were any threat. And then he said “She’s not gonna help you.” He felt nothing that we were there. It in no way affected his behavior." The tracks “Buddy in the Parade” and “Well-dressed” are based on the life of jazz cornet player Buddy Bolden, who Quinlan learned of while enrolled in a memento mori class in college. The track “Horseshoe Crabs” is based on the life of folk musician Jackson C. Frank. [28] [29] [30]
Allmusic awarded the album four-and-a-half stars, directing praise towards Frances Quinlan's vocal performance and raw lyrics, and calling the songs "catchy" and the instrumentation "tight and gritty". [31] New Noise Magazine called the album well-rounded, saying "each song is just as powerful and quirky as the one before and after it." [32] In 2017, Spin ranked Painted Shut #6 on their list of the emo revival's best albums. The site's Leor Galil saw it as the record where Hop Along "focused their frisson and aimed it towards pop", resulting in "hits only they could create." [2]
Phillip Cosores of Consequence wrote, "The album proves the singer’s will to catapult into greatness, standing as a testament to just how far a great front-person can push a tried-and-true formula." [33]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.9/10 [34] |
| Metacritic | 87/100 [35] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [36] |
| The A.V. Club | A− [37] |
| Consequence of Sound | B+ [38] |
| Exclaim! | 9/10 [39] |
| NME | 8/10 [40] |
| Pitchfork | 7.9/10 [41] |
| Rolling Stone |  [42] |
| Spin | 8/10 [43] |
| Uncut | 8/10 [44] |
| Vice (Expert Witness) | A− [45] |
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vice | The 50 Best Albums of 2015 | 2015 | 8 [46] |
| The A.V. Club | The 15 Best Albums of 2015 | 2015 | 15 [47] |
| Consequence | Top 50 Albums of 2015 | 2015 | 44 [48] |
| Stereogum | The 50 Best Albums of 2015 | 2015 | 7 [49] |
| Spin | 30 Best Emo Revival Albums, Ranked | 2017 | 6 [2] |
| Pitchfork | The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s | 2019 | 164 [50] |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Knock" | 3:33 |
| 2. | "Buddy in the Parade" | 3:47 |
| 3. | "Horseshoe Crabs" | 4:01 |
| 4. | "Waitress" | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Happy to See Me" | 4:35 |
| 6. | "Texas Funeral" | 4:28 |
| 7. | "Powerful Man" | 3:25 |
| 8. | "I Saw My Twin" | 3:23 |
| 9. | "Well-Dressed" | 4:02 |
| 10. | "Sister Cities" | 5:07 |
| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [51] | 10 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) [52] | 26 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) [53] | 41 |
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The album was co-produced with the band by the esteemed John Agnello, who's worked with the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth and proves a perfect fit for Hop Along's punk-spirited indie rock.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)Frances Quinlan's lyrics stretched and walloped over sometimes melodic, sometimes angular riffs reminiscent of both turn-of-the-millennium emo and Built To Spill-style rock.
Painted Shut is an album of wild extremes, marked by a dusty Americana that feels familiar and deeply personal.
Musically steadier but still infectious and heart-wrenching, "Powerful Man" is a survey on guilt and regret about an incident the songwriter witnessed but didn't interrupt as a young adult: "Your dad told you not to look at me/Down came the fists, hard upon your head/I was the only other adult around/I was the only other adult around." Later in the song, she and a friend look for an authority figure, and the person they find doesn't intervene either. Less personal but still affecting, "Buddy in the Parade" is a tribute to New Orleans ragtime cornetist Buddy Bolden, who was admitted to a mental institution at age 30, died there, and was buried in a poor man's cemetery ("Money, money, money don't let you sleep/Switching graves in the cemetery/They buried you so many times/Can't find your body"). The album's lyrics are relentlessly candid throughout, scattered amongst intimate stories, darkened imagery, and observations like "The world's gotten so small and embarrassing."
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)SCARPELLI: Quinlan found out about Buddy Bolden, an African-American cornet player, in a memento mori class in college in which students reflect on mortality.
Right behind the singing, and consistent throughout the album, are catchy songs conveyed by tight, gritty instrumental performances that seduce and rouse. What's more, raw, unsparing lyrics tell stories of violence, poverty, and remorse and justify Quinlan's often exasperated husky rasp.
