45. Hop Along - Painted Shut
Saddle Creek, 2015
The music of the 2010s is divided into two periods: the time before I heard Frances Quinlan sing and the time after. Hop Along’s breakout 2015 album Painted Shut was a paradigm shift. The decade featured dozens and dozens of young female voices busting out and altering the indie rock landscape, but Quinlan’s voice is a singular experience. Though the group’s 2018 release Bark Your Head Off, Dog is pretty much just as excellent in every way as Painted Shut, this one has the benefit of being the one that broke my brain. Maybe it’s like when people heard Janis Joplin sing for the first time. Quinlan’s vocals sound broken. Like they shouldn’t work. And yet the range she gets with her husky rasp and the versatility she displays is unlike anyone else in the game. While “Powerful Man” is the standout and the right introduction to the band’s particular brand of off-the-beaten-path indie rock, it’s the crescendo on “Horseshoe Crabs” that will make you a true believer.
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