Honestly, I have no idea who Hoarse is aside from a single-album band from 1997. With a sound that isn’t particularly memorable and can be classified as sound-alike alternative rock, little about Hoarse proves appealing.
A little research on the band turned up the fact that they are indeed a band from Detroit (I suppose this is the precise reason I inherited it from my sister) and that they were formed in 1993 by vocalist and guitarist John Speck, bassist Robby Graham and drummer Jimmy Paluzzi (an early member of Detroit rockers Sponge). The trio did what most Detroit bands do; they played in bars and tried to get their music played on local radio. Apparently, the work finally paid off and single Diamond got some attention…enough in fact to get the band a deal with RCA.
The resulting LP was 1997’s Happens Twice, the only album in fact that Hoarse ever released. For better or for worse, the band will probably never be known by any large bodies of people outside the borders of Michigan especially since the trio has since parted ways. Hoarse would have you believe that they are some sort of hard core rock band. In truth, they are something significantly less than mediocre, and incredibly wishy-washy.
In recording their 1997 debut, the band predictably plopped their only minor hit in the first position. Diamond barely rings any bells in my head. That leads me to believe that I’ve heard it on a number of occasions but it never has caught my attention. In analyzing the song I have no doubt as to why. It is boring, it lacks direction, and it barely has a melody. Diamond sounds like a badly fragmented blend of pre-popular Michigan bands Verve Pipe and Sponge with a dash of Dookie-style Green Day. And as such, there isn’t one damn good thing I can say about the track.
Second in line is only modestly better, mostly because the tune is fun and easy to dance to. But with that said, Tuesday Morning is by no means memorable. Neither is the sound-alike song Trivial. Hoarse’s music is predictable and monotonous. There seems to be some amount of talent deeply buried literal miles beneath layers of cliché.
Truly horrible songs like Push, 72, Paint The Town Red, and the incredibly painful Bouncing Checks should have been aborted upon conception. It really pains me to so negatively assess this act…they are of course from my home state, a place from which all too few artists originate (of course if you discount Madonna, Eminem, Iggy Pop, Ted Nugent, Bob Seger, and The White Stripes). But in all honestly Happens Twice is an uninspired hunk of drivel.
Other songs that prove incredibly forgettable although not offensive include Issue, Happens Twice, Crown, on Deck and the last song Long Gone.
Nothing about Hoarse or Happens Twice is worth partaking. The album should never have been made, and the one-album band should never have gotten any airplay even in Metro Detroit. Their one saving grace was their timing. Entering in during the post-grunge, watered down rock era the band had some minor chance of making it. But see…that’s the tricky part, to last more than two or three albums they would have needed talent.
Rating: 1/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Diamond
02. Tuesday Morning
03. Trivial
04. Push
05. Issue
06. 72
07. Happens Twice
08. Paint the Town Red
09. Crown
10. Bouncing Checks
11. On Deck
12. Long Gone
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