On the post rock blog, A Closer Listen, Richard Allen reviews the new Hammock album, Elsewhere. I’m looking forward to giving the album an intentional listen, when I have a chance. The songs are shorter, relative to those on other Hammock releases, so hopefully finding the time to give them attention should be less difficult. Allen calls out an excerpt from the liner notes on how the music approaches life.

But as Wyatt Marshall writes in the liner notes, the duo encourages listeners to “live their lives” in whatever condition, battered or blessed, they may be.  Hammock neither shies from the pain of the world nor offers a simple solution.  They imply that the ways out may include forward, sideways, or through, but never backward or standing still.  Hope is hard work.

With all of the upheaval we are going through now, Allen recognizes that Hammock’s transcendent music can be a balm for our souls.