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<\/a><\/p>\nWhen it comes to first impressions, I\u2019ll have to be completely honest and confess that from my perspective, the Austin duo Hovvdy didn’t test all that well. It was unfair in my assessment, though, to write them off as faceless among an ever-growing field of vanilla folk artists, or even worse, \u201cbro\u201d culturalists intent on playing with dorm-room nonchalance to co-ed bonfires, industry types, and middle-aged suburbanites who have simply given up on having taste. I\u2019m sorry now that I didn\u2019t ever give them a chance (maybe it was the spelling of their name?) and have paid my penance two-fold, catching up with a strident catalog of unassuming songs that span the last decade and making sure I saw them live when they came to my town.<\/p>\n
To wit, I hadn\u2019t even noticed the work of Charlie Martin and Will Taylor until the release of last year\u2019s self-titled double album, a record that has since rarely left the rotation, a record that sneakily lands its hooks and all but forces listeners to sing along to every word.<\/p>\n
Though it was a dreary first day of spring in Columbus, the boys of Hovvdy brought with them immaculate vibes and a feel-good batch of ineffable pop that their faithful flock treated as gospel. Looking around the room full of hat-wearing, furtively vaping, overly-polite Gen Z fans, it was apparent their lyrics\u2013mostly about love, smiling, and helping out your fellow man\u2013hold a lot of sway. But stylistically, Hovvdy are chameleons, their simply written acoustic laments, accented with Zuma<\/i>-grunge, \u201890s indie guitar motifs, breezy synthetic beats (though they did have a drummer in tow), and gravel and honey harmonies. It\u2019s those nuanced hues that elevate the duo above the fray of aforementioned faceless folkies.<\/p>\n
For this tour, the Hovvdy experience included a bassist, drummer, and piano player in order to adequately flesh out the baubles that make their most recent album such a delight. That said, in the tradition of notable pop duos through time\u2014be it Simon and Garfunkel, Tears for Fears, or even Go West\u2014the draw was the chemistry that exists between the group\u2019s two songwriters. Their interplay on \u201cForever,\u201d a song that could very well become a generational anthem (in the same way Len\u2019s \u201cSteal My Sunshine\u201d is for some) was infectious, as was the entirety of the crowd joining in on \u201cTrue Love\u201d as a fitting finale. There was a bit of a lull in the middle of the set, if only because I wasn\u2019t familiar with their older albums and yawn easily during weepy ballads. But the craftiness and clarity of their newest hits, which made up a bulk of the playlist, were effervescent and sometimes even transcendent, their indelible catchiness and the, again, vibes, too gilded to ignore. If there\u2019s a lesson here, it\u2019s that it takes all types, and sometimes, judging a book by its cover, or in this case, its bro-ish facade, will cause you to miss a worthwhile endeavor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to first impressions, I\u2019ll have to be completely honest and confess that from my perspective, the Austin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2630,1443],"class_list":["post-8554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-the-rumpus","tag-hovvdy","tag-whats-the-rumpus"],"yoast_head":"\n
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