Ruth Underwood

Music Review

(Written for www.stranger-mag.com)

Experiments in Living is Leeds-based Four Day Hombre’s debut album. It is released on their own fan-funded label, Alamo Records, affording them a musical freedom that is evident throughout.

Songs such as The First Word is the Hardest and Single Room give the impression of simplicity, but go on to unlock an intensity that builds to a point of near combustion. The lyrics too are simple, but never dull: the repetition of lines such as “I’ll be OK in a week or two” (Inertia) contrast with others which are crowded with tales just waiting to be untangled.

There is a feel of Cold Play to the album, but Four Day Hombre are by no means playing copycat. Every track veers off in an unexpected direction - leaving enough that’s familiar to make it comfortable listening, and enough that’s surprising to make it worth coming back to, again and again.