With independent music, you don't usually have the case of one hit wonders. This is mainly due to the fact that most independent music isn't being played on commercial radio and MTV. But, with Polyvinyl's recent signee, Hail Social, I have a feeling this will not be the case. Having toured with Interpol and Secret Machines, and sharing a sound that is very close to the former mixed with Franz Ferdinand, there is no reason other than little schemes such as Payola that Hail Social's 'Get in the Car' should not see radio play.
But right there is the problem with the disc. 'Get in the Car' is the only song that really reaches out and grabs the listener's attention. It is now evident why Polyvinyl released this song as the free download before the record came out. The album's first song, 'Hands are Tired' is a decent song with some random falsetto mixed in here and there; it has a forgettable chorus but a catchy bass line. This seems to be the case with this record quite often. Catchy bass lines are strewn throughout the whole record, but little else is worth remembering.
'Get in the Car' follows this song and begins immediately with the catchiest bass line of them all, handclaps, and vocals that are layered over top of it all. Polyvinyl provided the following description for the album: '80's roller-skating music being played by a metal band,' And while it is accurate that you could roller-skate till the cows come home listening to 'Get in the Car', there is absolutely no sense of metal anywhere to be found.
'Come out Tonight' is about the only other decent song on the record. The song title 'Repetition' describes the record fairly well as most of the songs are played at the same tempo and share the same exact song structure. 'Track #1' is a boring song that has the same rhythm parts played behind it the whole time. 'More Time' describes what you should not give this band. Anything past the third song is forgettable as you've really heard everything that Hail Social is capable of.
Overall, Hail Social is an attempt to play at the big boys' level, but it fails pretty badly. The throwback 80's sound on this disc is very tired and executed rather poorly. If you need your fix for that sort of thing, just wait for the new Franz Ferdinand record to come out.
