By Monk
According to their back story (and we all love a good back story here at ÜRHQ), Italian garage rockers The Hornets (not to be confused with the Belfast post-punk combo of almost the same name) trace their roots back to the lazy summer of 2016, when brothers Alberto and Stefano Francio decided to ease their boredom by jamming out some tunes with friend Giovanni Artioli. Sometime later, they recruited drummer Andrea Rovituso… but, that initial lazy summer rendezvous seems to have lasted slightly longer than they all first anticipated as, five years later, they have finally got around to presenting us with their debut album…
‘Heavier Than A Stone’ lives up to that “don’t judge a book by its cover… or title” adage. One glance at that title might well suggest a doom-laden opus filled with dankness and darkness contrasting with the summer sunshine in which it was initially conceived. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, as it is a collection of bright, breezy and suitably summery pop-rock tunes which very much draw their breath from the same canon as Mott The Hoople and The Small Faces, as well as multivarious garage pop acts, to the extent that the album sounds that it could have been crated in the back alleys of a rain-soaked Boston rather than the Etruscan sunshine of a town better known for producing balsamic vinegar than hi-energy power pop.
The Hornets live up to their name by packing this comparatively short album – it’s just nine songs, most of which clock in at a very radio friendly three minutes or so – with buzzy riffs which fly around inside your head long after the first listen, pollenating your aural cortexes with the sort of hummable melodies that you find yourself unconsciously, erm, humming to yourself days later… and that is one of the signs of a good rock ‘n’ roll album, isn’t it?
At the end of the day, there is no sense of boredom or laziness about ‘Heavier…’. It is a vibrant and energetic album: the length of its gestation is displayed in the attention to detail, with nothing sounding out of place, not a disparate note or out-of-place vocal phrasing, while at the same time providing those all-important sense of fluidity and urgency, and fun, that so many albums lack. A very impressive debut from a band from whom we at ÜRHQ definitely look forward to hearing more.
- ‘Heavier Than A Stone’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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