Handclaps & Tambourines. Librarians With Hickeys

Albums come in a few categories that matter: great, fantastic and fun. All others can usually be discarded, unless they grow on you anyway. Having listened several times to Librarians With Hickeys' sophomore record, Handclaps & Tambourines, I do have trouble categorising it. It sounds too familiar to be great or better but also is far too good to be mere fun. Does it really matter? No, because I truly love to listen to it. This record plays into my musical taste just right and tickles some fancies on the side as well.

Librarians With Hickeys is a band from Akron, Ohio, that released its first album in 2020, 'Long Overdue'. Now we all know what happened with albums released in our first Covid year. It passed me by, I have to admit. Handclaps & Tambourines certainly has not. This mix of 60s pop from The Byrds to who not, including some authentic sounding guitar work, passing Big Star most certainly, towards the American based power pop of the late 70s, to a pre-Britpop band like Teenage Fanclub. It's all here and caught in fresh sounding new songs.

Singer/guitarist Ray Carmen, lead guitarist/vocalist Mike Crooker, bassist Andrew Wilco and drummer Rob Crossley know what they want and how to execute their musical desires and tastes. No matter the tempo of attack, a Librarians With Hickeys song has to contain a certain amount of dreaminess, a longing for things not there. Whether the band goes full out like on 'Lady Overdrive', a 60s psychic rocker or a more pop felt tune like 'I Can't Stop Thinking About You', that dreaminess is always there. If Librarians With Hickeys has anything, it is that romantic streak.

Promo photo

The toughness starts with drummer Rob Crossley. He likes to hit his snare hard, giving it a snappy sound that makes me perk up my ears. Something is happening here and the melodic instruments in and the vocal melodies of the band all deliver. There's not one song on this album that does not have these little sparks of magic of old, like they used to fly around in old Disney movies involving magic wands.

This band loves nostalgic sounding music. That much is clear from my listening sessions so far. There's literally nothing modern to discover here, the powerful sound that did not exist in the 1960s aside. Librarians With Hickeys step into a line of bands who look back in time for their inspiration and often come up with some great melodies in a familiar idiom. It works for me though and it should for everyone with a liking for pop melodies from the old days.

To come back to my dilemma. Handclaps & Tambourines sounds too familiar to be utterly brilliant and is too serious (and good) to be just a fun album. Brilliant fun the album is for sure.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Handclaps & Tambourines here:

https://bigstirrecords.bandcamp.com/album/handclaps-tambourines