Toronto musician Scott Hardware dropped his third album called Ballad Of A Tryhard via Telephone Explosion.
While I find the album cover has more of a dramatic feel and not a disturbing grotesque of meat parts from Engel.
From the likes on Ballad Of A Tryhard, this is more of a dramatic indie Euro-rock album.
I get this Radiohead-esque The Bends vibe.
Pretty solid on the lyrics and the music.
About the album:
On Ballad of a Tryhard, the third album by Scott Hardware, he attempts a response by honouring the splendor of “living between emotions.” It’s an album where a rich inner monologue, and the undefined space between reflection and realization can offer an invaluable reprieve.
Over luminous keys and sky-sweeping melodies, Harwood reverse engineers his capabilities as a composer skilled in the art of complexity to deliver his boldest album to date — unselfconsciously ambitious Y2K rock; a reimagination of experimental adult contemporary that tweaks the limits of soft rock with curiosity and appreciation.
On Ballad of a Tryhard, Hardware conducts a painstaking character evaluation to better understand the world by looking inward. Suspended and exalting, the album bursts with cinematic flourishes that ring with a courageous form of earnestness. Because once you examine the internal toll of people-pleasing, and question if charisma has been overvalued, is there space to imagine a new reality that seeks to uplift rather than wallow — observing sparse moments of beauty and light amidst a world in constant mourning?
Crafted in Spain and co-produced with Matt Smith (Prince Nifty, Lido Pimienta), Ballad of a Tryhard is a snapshot of weeks spent in Elche, a sleepy Mediterranean city on the southeast coast, wandering through emptied-out streets, becoming acquainted with the interiors of a historic apartment block, and living for the first time with a familiar love. With unlimited time on his hands, Harwood would write slowly, playing piano until dawn. The result is an album with ornate and bucolic orchestral arrangements that nod to a background in techno and house with a tangled web of synths and strings.
Ballad of a Tryhard gets: 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷/10.
Scott Hardware – Ballad Of A Tryhard [Streaming]
