OUT HUD - Let Us Never Speak Of It Again

!!!, who made headlines last year with "Louden Up Now", a solid blend of dance and punk-funk, were formed in Sacramento in 1996, alongside another band with whom they share three members.

Taylor Pope, Nick Offer and Justin Vandervolgen (guitar, vocals and bass) are in fact also key members, together with violinist Molly Schinct and Phyllis Forbes, of the Out Hud project.

The two bands' careers have run in tandem, and a year after !!! debuted with a full-length (their self-titled album in 2001), it was Out Hud's turn to take on the challenge. The result is "S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.", the post-rock version of !!!, six lengthy instrumental tracks with undeniably greater ambition, courage and quality than their sister band (which comes across as something of a side show, however enjoyable).

Three years have passed since then, and the band has released its second LP, "Let Us Never Speak of It Again".

If !!! changed very little of their formula for their second effort, the same can't be said for Out Hud. The record is split right down the middle between old and new.

The old is represented by three long post-punk-funk digressions, while the new consists of the remaining tracks, actual proper songs (handled by a female voice), which transpose the band's punk-funk into disco-pop territory. And it's precisely from this side that the best material comes.

"It's for You", opened by an electronic pulse over which percussion hits stand out, suddenly bursts into an immediate chorus for guitar somewhere between funk and wave and synth, before flowing into a coda of jazzy piano and funky beat; "How Long", after an intro of exotic violins (lasting about a minute), reveals its disco-funk face, seasoned with a great keyboard arrangement before nailing the record's second immortal chorus, with an epic synth opening and relaxed melody.

Two tracks that are perfect in melody, arrangement and rhythm.

The other two songs, though not quite on that level, are still very much worthwhile: "One Life to Leave", dominated by a rhythmic bassline, is subjected to violent punk-funk incursions while a train-paced dance beat drives things along in the background; "Old Nude" builds slowly, opening with a calm spoken delivery over funk chimes and increasingly insistent drums, before, accompanied by a beguiling violin, a succession of electronic figures becomes the base for an ethereal melody (which will show its full potential when it's reprised with a crystalline arrangement in the closing minute of "The Zillionth Wait").

If the new Out Hud works perfectly, the same can't quite be said of the old one: the long digressions of "The Song So Good They Named It Thrice" (8 minutes) and "Dear Mr. Bush, There Are Over 100 Words for Shit and Only 1 for Music" (11 minutes), built on keyboard inventions and violin melodies, come across as pleasant but unfocused (and in any case lesser than those found on the debut album); "2005: A Face Odyssey" (7 minutes) fares better, boasting a hypnotic piano figure with guitar counterpoints, before a violent synth hit launches everything into open space.

Closing things out is "The Stoked American", a bizarre, disorienting chant. "Let Us Never Speak of It Again" is essentially a sidestep from "S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.": although the previous work seems preferable, one honestly cannot deny the band's great strides forward in personality, nor their skill and talent in the arrangements and in chiseling the songs' structures (which contain manifold ideas and influences, even if the result can occasionally feel a bit cold).

There's still a touch of bitterness, because the record (which, incidentally, leaves the impression of ending too soon) could potentially have been better than it is, and expectations for the future, at this point, become even higher.

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30/04/2026