The leaves grow old and fall and die - Hood album poll

one of the middle two

it's always songs for me with this band, not albums. but i like stuff off each one.

probably cycle of days and seasons

man I was super into this stuff for, like, a couple of years, and then totally forgot it existed

Voted Cold House, I loved it at the time - bought Outside Closer as well but never delved into the older stuff until a couple of years ago (and still haven't heard the first two albums). Impressed at how prolific they were - there's so much stuff on the compilations alone. This seems like a good time of year to revisit them as well.

i really liked some of the actual pop songs they wrote later on but that wasn't what they did best imo - i think they hit their peak with cycle of days and seasons

Re-listening to that one now - am about halfway through and already thinking I should've voted for it instead...

Outside Closer was my introduction to Hood and I still think it's brilliant, but I also think I'm duty bound to vote Rustic Houses, an album which I've said before has more in common with black metal than indie rock

plz xplain

the ritualistic repeating of a 3-3-2 riff pattern in more or less every song, the cold repetitive nature of the guitar work, the sense of outsiderness and impenetrability. idk. gives me similar vibes

I probably need to listen to the middle 2 albums again. I got into Hood circa Silent '88 via Boyracer/Slumberland connections I guess, got that album and the first one, then forgot about them until years later I saw them mentioned on ILM and listened to all the later ones, but didn't really get into the middle ones, I liked Cold House & Outside Closer though.

the grim evocation of place and weather

i know 3-3-2 riffs aren't a bm thing but the very fact that this album has a go-to guitar pattern makes it quite bm-y imo, it's like hood's very own version of blastbeats

silent 88 is good btw yeah

outsideness too i guess. though on a bare yorkshire hillside rather than in some gloomy boreal forest obv — xps

yep

I regret that it took me about four years to get round to listening to them, so i missed the slumberland stuff at the time - the name hood was just so unappealing

wish I could remember who it was that said they'd have been much more popular if they'd called themselves The Hood

Cycle... was the one that really leaned me when I revisited all these circa the boxset's release a few years back

this is the perfect time to listen to them. perfect for grim, introspective longing on a cold november morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z_aez6GGpQ

I remember that I didn't think that much of "Cycle..." when I first heard it many years ago, but it continues to quietly weave its spell with every listen. It's so fragile that I feel I have to lower my expectations whenever I play it, just in case it buckles under the pressure. I'd vote for it, but I fear it'd be like shining a searchlight on a dormouse and would startle it back into the hedgerows, never to be seen again.

So I've gone for "Outside Closer" instead. Always seems to be mentioned as a bit of an afterthought when people write about Hood, perhaps because it doesn't represent such a distinct "phase" in their work. But it's nigh on perfect in my eyes.

I loved these guys in the late 90s - Rustic Houses and loads of 7”s. I remember hearing Cycles one time in a store and thinking it breathtaking, but then never seeing another copy of the album until only a few years ago.

But whatever spell Hood cast is broken now. I find almost everything to be amateur, tuneless wallowing. Their moodiness seemed so exquisite when I was 22. Now it fills me with impatience.

I go back to them every few years, including this week thanks to this poll. But I just don’t think they’ve aged well at all.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I can't believe this travesty of a result has passed without comment.

yeah i don't get cold house at all, it seems their weakest record. even including silent '88. can't remember the first album at all mind

After some recent re-listening I would now say that both Rustic Houses and Cycle of Days are superior records (the former would now get my vote) but Cold House is definitely still better than Outside Closer or Silent '88 (I've never heard Cabled Linear Traction).

I totally get Cold House. And yes, it's way way better than Outside Closer.

Results are still a tragedy though. Other person who voted Rustic Houses, will you marry me?

uhhhh

I saw these guys circa Cold House (with clouddead/themselves) and it was pretty magnificent..

xp lmao 't was you LJ? Man of my word, me.

(ahhh I see... should've scrolled up :-/ :D)

suggest banns for the pair of you

haha, A+

i regret everything

everything

everything

etc