Hovvdy’s “Try Try Try” is, as a piece of music, something of a chameleon. You can hear the country song this might have been, but in its current form as an indie-rock track, it’s the sort of song you put on at the start of what you hope is going to be a good day. Just when we’re settled into the cruise control of the song, there’s a hint of Gorillaz, and then just as we’re grabbing our bucket hat, we’re pulled right back onto the main road. It’s a hoot.
Start-Track’s founder is a big fan of the Austin-based pop duo, but this is my first outing with Hovvdy. The production is clean and playful: The acoustic lines after the first chorus of the song are easily my favorite bit of the song, and it’s just short enough to earn a few extra queues just to get to that section again.
To compliment Hovvdy with a negative, it’s so easy with dream-pop shoegazy bands like this to get lost in the effects loop and forget to write a good song, and instead to make a recording that works as more than just a pretext for oh wow check out this cool texture I made with these three pedals.
“Try Try Try” has none of those problems: Every single shift of effects and every production choice serves a complete song, and of course that actually has me appreciating the subtle choices from section to section a hell of a lot more than it would if they were setting out to impress me.
Take a listen to “Try Try Try” below.
Written by Willow Stonebeck
