New Music Revue: Living Hour deliver amazing dreampop on third album

Arts February 20, 2019

Living Hour
Softer Faces
(Kanine Records)
4.5/5

Honey vocals with a dreamy marriage of trombone, guitar, Organelle, bass, trumpet, and drums blend into the perfect ambiance for sinking deeply into the moment—Softer Faces is Winnipeg dreampop quintet Living Hour’s third album, and, clearly, they’re doing something right.

I’ve played this while commuting, doing yoga, studying, reading, cooking, and chilling with a joint in my room. The soft, gentle tracks flow delicately without disturbing or taking up too much space.

Sometimes melancholy in their slow, spacey wavelengths, these are not pre-game tracks for Friday night. Imagine, instead, a long ride under the stars; a cozy book while snow swirls outside; a slow-burning meeting of tongues.

Anything with trumpet gets my immediate nod of appreciation. The real win is when I can listen to an album and not necessarily know it’s on but feel a void when it stops playing. It becomes the soundtrack to whatever it is I am doing and makes itself indispensable to the moment. Living Hour has accomplished this.