HUDSON BELL - When The Sun Is The Moon

At the age of 13, Hudson Bell was already having fun with the guitar. In Baton Rouge there wasn't much else to do. Singer-songwriters (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed) filled his endless days. Girls, on the other hand, would come later. He set off travelling (Oxford, Little Rock, Lexington); wrote short stories; fell in love; lost himself; ended up in San Francisco. On the West Coast came the epiphany: a band of his own. John Slater (bass, piano and organ) and Brian Fraser (drums) joined Bell's harmonica, guitar and voice. Long afternoons spent in the rehearsal room. Arguments, false starts, aimless jam sessions, and inspiration striking when least expected. And finally, the debut.

Seven songs that break no new ground, sure. But sometimes that matters very little. Nothing at all, in fact. Dense distortion, relentless melancholy, blazing lyrical openings. Slowly dissipating one's youthful obsessions in the burning fire of maturity: "Slow Burn" is the epic ballad we've all imagined belting out at least once in our lives, facing a stormy sea, swallowed by the tempest that wipes summer off the horizon. Those are moments that still carry sparks of lysergic torment ("Seven Cities"), delicate slides entrusted with warped, borderline visions from the garden of memory ("The Falls"). Vivid, tendentially transcendent songwriting; ecstatic. Caught up in hallucinated, divinely melodic tremors. Stretches that suddenly bring Dinosaur Jr. to mind ("Atlantis Nights") and textbook ballad swagger ("The Midnight Year"; "Strange Lands") do nothing but draw a line between this debut and countless other records that barely scrape a passing grade.

"Sea Horse", with its build-up of tension and release, distortion and delightful arpeggios, seals a record with a lyrical-emotional appeal that's anything but conventional. Perfect, in short, for those days when you feel like hurting yourself a little, dusting off old loves, drinks with friends, the woman of your dreams who's already forgotten you...

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30/04/2026