Kicking off withback to back high spirited singlesincludingthe top forty breaking ‘What A Lovely Dance’ that mixes The Thrills sound in ‘Not For All The Love In The World’ and the tingling nature of Mamas and Pappas, followed by latestsingle ‘Play The Hits’ sets a romantic tone early on. However, this album stands up on its own, consisting of an even tempo throughoutand is inno way propped up by the aforementioned offerings.The Simon & Garfunkel feelseeps out in ‘Slow Down (You’ve Got A Friend), ‘Satisfied’ and to a lesser extent ‘Don’t Come Running’ that has a slight The Byrds feel thrown into the scintillating summery blend.
The soft yet sprightly instrumentals and the uplifting vocals of Dave Allen give this Irish outfit an ethereally uplifting feel, but they rarely stray into cheesy territory, although at times they do balance like trapeze artists above it. However, as stand out number ‘Worry about the Wind’ demonstrates, Hal have a bleak underlay that is shrouded in the splendidly tingling instrumentals, but the lyrics tell a different story;
“I keep on thinking about worrying about that time; you kept on running out, didn’t count the cost.”
This Irish quartet have bounded out of the shadow of The Thrills with this compelling debut that has a healthy degree of depth, to ensure that the offering stands up to close inspection.
