Say Hi Album Review: Oohs & Aahs
New Release is a Departure from Broken Toy Robots and Vampires
Say Hi's newly released album Oohs & Aahs is creative chaos in a good way. The album is the endeavor of sole band member Eric Elbogen, who recorded the music at his home studio on a Mac computer, and is the first Say Hi album released by Barsuk Records.
The Album
Elbogen, the singer, songwriter and instrumentalist for Say Hi, sings about affairs of the heart on this album. Unlike his previous songs about broken toy robots and vampires, many of the songs on this album are more like odes to past loves.
At least four of the songs have a girl's name in the title, there's Elouise, Maurine, Audrey and Sallie's Heart is Stone. Although there is not one defining song on the album, the one song that stands out November was White, December was Grey is not about a girl. It is about wishing for cold winter days to go away, and is sort of a soothing anthem to the end of frosty weather.
Another noteworthy track on this album is Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh, which begins with a long upbeat solo of horns, then is followed by some guitar, and later gets heavy on the drums. It has a catchy 80's style beat toward the middle of the song, but the first ten seconds of it sounds like it could be an Austin Powers movie soundtrack.
Darker Tracks
Other tracks like Audrey and Maurine are a little bit darker. The intro to Audrey is this very depressing sounding ballad of synthesized organ music which would be perfect for a goth wedding, but then it changes to a more upbeat tune halfway through the song.
One of the lyric lines to the song Maurine professes, "But Maurine, I can't come to your party, cause I think that I'm dead." These cryptic, mixed up lyrics leave this song open to interpretation. Is he really dead or is something inside of him dead?
The Fusing of Chaos
It sounds as if Elbogen couldn't quite decide on which instruments to use in each song, so he used a multitude of them including horns, shakers, drum machines and other various devices on his keyboard to create an interesting and multi-layered mix of tracks.
This compilation of songs is a bit of a departure from Say Hi's previous albums, and longtime fans may actually like it better than his previous work. Elbogen's new found maturity as an artist has helped him to create one of his best albums so far.
Oohs & Aahs album cover
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Eric Elbogen
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