Hollow River-Back Bay Dropout

Hollow River has a genre blend that might bend your mind a little. With live instruments, they blends their smart lyricism to create something fresh. The tone, tune and rhythm is something all their lyrics imbibe, and maybe even confuse. They come back with their entertaining new EP, you can bet you’ve never heard anything like this before. This one is called Back Bay Dropout. Like Kanye’s famous album College Dropout, there is a play in tone here. With the brilliant tracks this album packs, prepare yourself to be entranced by a creative output unlike any other. We open with Aspartame. For those of you who didn’t know what that is, it was a high-intensity sweetener used for a lot of food and drinks. It was aggressively sweet, saccharine rich. The entire rap sounds like a riff on this one additive that seemed to run our lives. A reggae joy exists in the rhythm, the song and lyrics have a fun connect that you wouldn’t be able to make ordinarily. It leads to make a very catchy, fun song with nostalgia for some, the people who knew this additive. Hip-hop diaries The Way I Want To has a riff that runs on the lines of Fountains of Wayne’s famous track, Stacy’s Mom. There is a lot of 90s nostalgia that Hollow River brings with their lyrics and imagery. It is of a time well spent, memories that many will have, and these rhythms that incite such a feeling. It goes full rock, swinging with a power of a punk track. Hollow River ensures they have gripped your attention with this genre swap, something that makes the album even more fun to follow. The chorus is an alt-rock gem, drawn from artists like blink-182 and sum-41. Artists who ruled Walkmen and CD players all over the world. Hollow River delivers fresh sound I’ll Break Them Down is a kind of PSA for haters. It is a message, wrapped neatlhy in this other rock tortilla, that you seem to enjoy almost instantly. Hollow River has an uncanny ability to immediately hook to a tone, even if they aren't singing. This makes for some fun, groovy music that keeps shifting style and gives you all the frequencies of your favourite radio channels. The EP closes out with Ignite. In measure, you’re looking at a proper punk-rock and rap fusion. Something like what Bad Brains would sound in an alternate tone discovery. Their flow is ridiculously well-formed, switching between themes and feelings, events and styles. Like a live performer, they have the audience with every word. It is an effort unlike any other rapper, to merge styles they love to create something so amazingly fluidic. You can listen to their other songs like The Way I Want To and Known to Lie. The former became a sensation, racking a lot of streams on Spotify. This kind of energy is always welcome in any playlist. This would fit very well in the 2018 movie, Mid90s. Underrated but time accurate, Hollow River is the voice of so many that grew up before the millennia turned. Enjoy their music and follow them for more!