Review: Hands and Knees - "Wholesome"

2010 was a great year for Boston bands, with killer records from Kingsley Flood, Viva Viva, Doomstar!, Faces On Film and St. Claire, just to name a few.  Well, 2011 is shaping up to be even better.  Barely 2 weeks into the year Hands and Knees has released Wholesome, their follow-up to 2009's excellent Et tu, Fluffy? and my personal soundtrack to the past few weeks (and it's not leaving the rotation anytime soon).

Wholesome plays like your favorite mixtape -- you know, the one that you listened to nonstop on that roadtrip until it wouldn't play anymore so you just sang the songs from memory?  What I'm getting at here is that Wholesome covers a lot of stylistic ground, and does it all well.  From jangly soul-tinged rock to catchy indie-pop to dusty country-folk, all with a broken-in lo-fi feel that matches the tunes perfectly.  The key is, it never seems forced or contrived -- it sounds like a fucking blast.  Like friends playing tunes they love. This is a record I know I'll be listening to for a long, long time.

Wholesome should open lots of doors for Hands and Knees -- so, while you still can, head over to the band's bandcamp page to grab the album for whatever you want to pay (including $0, but c'mon...).  You can also pick up the vinyl, which includes instant download for the super-reasonable price of $10 -- or spring for the limited edition vinyl version for just $5 more.  Catch the band's CD release show at Great Scott on January 27.

Stream or download the incredibly catchy "Sitting at the Piano Disappearing" below, and check out the Visible Voice Winter Mixtape to hear another track from Wholesome.

Hands and Knees - Sitting at the Piano Disappearing

Comments

[Music Savage]

Can't stop listening to it.