HOPE & SOCIAL are a band from Leeds. You probably haven’t heard of them but hopefully one day you will. They have been going for over 10 years. They began life as Four Day Hombre but changed names about a year or so ago. Why should you hear them? Well, remember when Elbow were the best kept secret in the world and then everyone started liking them and you had to pretend that you thought they were crap. Everyone knew you were lying but it just wasn’t the same was it? Well here are another band that you can pin your hopes on before everyone else discovers them. They’re not new, they have no gimmicks (unless you include a nice line in blue blazers) and I once compared them with that other great Leeds band that no-one ever heard of; yes ladies and gentlemen THE CUD BAND. Not that Hope & Social sound anything like Cud it’s just that they remain a secret outside of Yorkshire. Anyway I ramble. This week Hope & Social release a new 5 track EP; Songs from the Bar of Lost Souls. It’s available from their web site at a “name your price” price. Basically you can have it for free or give them £100 towards their next album. They are far more concerned with getting their music out to your ears than making a fast buck. As Four Day Hombre they released 3 albums; Experiments in Living, Fight Death and One.Foot.Louder. All on their own label Alamo. These were financed by fans who pledged enough money to get the records released. As Hope & Social they have carried this on. Last year they released their debut  album Architect of this Church. It had taken 2 years and was recorded, as the title suggests, in a church in West Yorkshire. Again it was fans who financed its making. So go on give them a chance. Don’t expect their music to instantly capture your heart. They are organic in the same way as the aforementioned Elbow or Arcade Fire or Nick Cave. Their songs take time to get into your head but if you have the patience you will be rewarded. They have kept it up for 10 years I am sure you can spare them a few hours. The new EP is the soundtrack to a play called Tales from the bar of lost souls. It is set in Greece and Cyprus and the feel of some of the songs is certainly Mediterranean. Like a lush red wine that starts to make you feel all happy as the evening sun warms your face. There is sea shanty being sung by a bar full of drunks and whores. “Give me a drink and a good length of rope” (The Wildness) sums up the themes; drink and death. Like Nick Cave if he came from Batley. The Wildness is my favourite of the five but all the songs are beautifully written and performed. I doubt you will go and see the play but listen to the soundtrack. Go to their site(www.hopeandsocial.com), download it for free and listen. If you hate it you’ve not lost anything. If you like it send them a fiver, go see them live, tell people that you heard them first. Next years Elbow? Maybe. But who cares. Music is for listening to not for scoring points in the Pretentious Arms pub quiz. Enjoy.

By peter on November 28, 2009