The Hillary Step - "The Second Time Means Nothing" (Urinine Records)

Album review by Mark Cuthbertson

The Hillary Step’s debut recording begins with Brad Hodgson galloping onto the soundscape with a clean, jangly guitar riff over a simple, wide-open foundation of bass and drums. “You and Me and This” soon breaks into its sharply contrasting distorted chorus, typical of most of the songs featured on The Second Time Means Nothing.

The overall mood of The Second Time Means Nothing is passive-aggressive. The tones and intensities of the instruments and vocals are gentle and peaceful when all is well (see track #8, “Kimmie Joe”) and deceivingly so while repressing a seething emotional cauldron until it is projected and released (especially “No Good Reason,” “One Year and a Day,” “Refined, Regrouped, & Reassured”). Every member and instrument of the band facilitates these mood swings. Brad’s voice leads the way as he ranges from soothing near-whispers to sustained cries of angst and frustration. The guitar and bass tones emit warm, soothing clean sounds and growl with several degrees of distortion and brightness when Brad’s energy spills over. Drumming is as low-key as lone cymbals and as aggressive as all four limbs can be at the appropriate times.

The result is an album rich with intense contrasts, complex song structures, textures, and ideas. Most songs are essentially two or three parts repeated in cycles; however, “No Good Reason” repeats very little of itself. It begins dark, quiet, and choppy, climaxes early, and ends in a state of dreamy bliss. While the songs achieve considerable variety and complexity overall, the individual parts of these songs are often simple and sparse, emphasizing (if not understating) the most important notes, harmonies, and rhythms over flashiness. Somehow, the Hillary Step manages to cover vast emotional and tonal territory in most of their songs without seeming unfocused, pretentious, or fragmented.

On the other hand, “Refined, Regrouped & Reassured” stretches its own seams to their limits. Like most of the other songs on The Second Time Means Nothing, the trio strives to cleverly navigate among drastic changes, smooth over the edges, and make sense out of them. However, if any one of these songs seems to go too many places in too little time, this would be the one. After many listens, the bridge section seems less awkward than it did the first time I heard it, but the departure still sounds like a bit of an afterthought, especially given the success of the rest of the album in this area.

The Second Time Means Nothing concludes with “She Dreams of Oceans,” a moody minor song which emulates its subject matter. Brad’s strumming a simple minor drone over Brian’s descending slides and Danny’s periodic rests create an image of a bobbing ship slowly making its way across the waves of an endless, stormy ocean. It’s the sort of image that begs a sequel, appropriately enough – perhaps the rare sort of sequel that could rival the original.

--Mark Cuthbertson

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