Album Review/ Art Rock : Hamish’s ‘Significant Others’

Hamish is a singer-songwriter and an art rock artist with a mellow, drifting sound. His work is marked by literary songwriting and introspective folk rock, acoustic rock arrangements. ‘Significant Others’ is the latest album (his second studio album) from Hamish. It is an elaborate collection of fifteen tracks detailing beautiful storytelling frames, thoughtful reveries and immersive characters. Each track pulls you deeper into this musical world and his musical ethos. By the end of it, you’ll actually feel like you briefly slipped into another world. 

‘I’d Never Make It Through’ opens the album. Its acoustic guitar riffs, mellow rhythmic dance and imagery filled vocals are so easy to absorb and store inside your body. There's a warmth to it that readily weaves in. Its melodic call takes you back to rustic artists like Nick Cave and Neil Young. Each track tells its own story and gathers a unique world around it. 

‘Funny One’ is playful and rhythmic with repetitive verses and a popping tempo. With light acoustic pieces floating around and warm vocal harmonies, the track really blooms into a singalong. ‘Gentlemen’ is an evocative and expressive folk song. It has a formal feel, almost choral in style before it picks up into a light pop rock flow. 

‘Helpless’ is a curious track. The artist’s words move with a philosophical flow. It lends advice, it tells us the way of the world and it soothes us tremendously. However, the baseline of the track is so light, with the artist telling us that it’s not that deep. Life has its moments of making us feel powerless. Embracing it and finding your way through is the only thing you can do. 

Tracks like ‘I’m Prepared to Wait’ and ‘I’d Like To Say That I’m Sorry’ really teaches us how to be human. Buoyantly so. It keeps you from circling into the drain and elevates you to a casual flow state. With these tracks, the artist creates a consistent rhythm, a comforting and predictable flow. It circles around the thematic verses and creates a globe of soft wisdom that keeps walking along with you. It’s simple, rustic and relatable. 

There’s a powerful feeling of camaraderie and community that the artist brings to his music. Especially this album. All the tracks feel rich, full with the energy and emotion of many others, rather than just the artist. It’s a sense of humanity. You’ll especially feel it in tracks like ‘The Worm Forgives the Plow’ and ‘The End is Always Hard’. 

Meanwhile, in tracks like ‘Don’t Try and Break My Heart’ and ‘Short Sharp Shock of Your Love’, the artist very cordially sets up a lover’s scene. A frame of love and heartache and everything in between and everything that surrounds it. With just guitar acoustics and vocals full of feeling, he’s able to fathom and erect a world that the listener is familiar with and can draw from. Such is his heart. He goes searching for the scenes that are in all our hearts. Scenes that are universal to all humans, and details them with simple and affecting melodies. Listen Now! 

The album is available for streaming on popular sites like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music! 

You can listen to ‘Significant Others’ by Hamish here -