We review A Rock – the debut album by Hardy – ahead of its release this Friday, 4th September through Big Loud Records.
Every so often you hear a record that you know will change the game – not just for the artist, but will also make its mark on the musical landscape. This debut record by HARDY is just one of those albums. The album cruises along with an easy swagger, moving from head-banging anthems (‘TRUCK’) to songs with real heart at the centre (‘GIVE HEAVEN SOME HELL’).
‘TRUCK’ is the bombastic opener that is reminiscent of Combs’ ‘Beer Never Broke My Heart’ combined with the swagger of Florida Georgia Line. ‘You can’t judge a book by his cover, but you can judge a country boy by his truck.’ It is clever songwriting that offers a new edge on the hallowed walk of the ‘truck’ in country songwriting. So too, HARDY comments on country songwriting in ‘BOYFRIEND.’ This track is an answer if you ever needed it to the ‘boyfriend country’ genre that has sprang to the fore in recent years, with HARDY singing the opposite. ‘I don’t want to be your boyfriend anymore, I’m tired about talking about babies and diamond rings.’ It is a soaring, anthemic track and HARDY’s signature vocal really soars with its thick Southern twang, and is as sure a hit as his single ‘ONE BEER’ that is another funny and light-hearted take on the ‘boyfriend’ journey, moving from a beer to family almost by happenstance.
Still, HARDY reveals more sides to himself in this record. In ‘GIVE HEAVEN SOME HELL,’ HARDY sings of missing a lost loved one and wanting them to raise hell in heaven until he gets there. The guitar and drums are as heavy as the rest of the record, yet there is something deeply sentimental and reverential about this track that makes it both refreshing and instantly likeable. In other moments on the record, HARDY takes his swaggering country persona and imbibes a touch of 00s emo – so in ‘SO CLOSE,’ where he is joined by Ashland Craft, he sings of being so close to a forever kind of love. The track feels as close to ‘yearning’ as you get from HARDY and the result is unexpectedly captivating, and Craft’s unusual vocal is a flawless touch to round out the tone of the song. Another sentimentally magic moment is provided on ‘HATE YOUR HOMETOWN,’ where HARDY yet again inverts the country songwriting stereotype, singing of hoping his girl on leaving him for her hometown hates it there. The result is wittily magical and astute.
At times the record reveals an almost ‘metal’ edge. Though ‘BOOTS’ opens with the bars reminiscent of Eric Church’s ‘Springsteen’, HARDY rips into a chunky riffing guitar and a heavy vocal that moves into the heavy rock spectrum, giving the album a distinctly grittier edge. So, ‘WHERE YA AT’ has a flavour of ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia,’ moving with a riffing and pacy guitar. This one like ‘UNAPOLOGETICALLY COUNTRY’ will be the kind of anthemic track that crowds will be bellowing back at live events.
As HARDY himself says he is ‘UNAPOLOGETICALLY COUNTRY’ but he has inverted every country stereotype in the book on this debut record. The result is magical country, unusual, refreshing and clever. The record reveals more and more sides to HARDY as the album reveals itself, right up to his most poignant track – final track ‘A ROCK.’ This is a record that will leave you wanting more and feel a deep and immediate sense of affinity for the artist who created it. What a debut.
Editor’s Picks
BOYFRIEND
SO CLOSE
HATE YOUR HOMETOWN
