Review: Living Hour – Someday is Today

Living Hour
Someday Is Today

Kanine Records
Street 09.02
Living Hour = Current Joys + Silversun Pickups

In order to fully explain Living Hour’s third full-length album, Someday Is Today, I shall paint you a picture. It’s wintertime, the harsh cold of Utah has settled in, and it’s here to stay. You lazily wake up from a warm and cozy slumber draped in a white, poofy down comforter; Outside, idle snow falls from a gray sky. The day is Sunday, and you have exactly zero plans, save for some spare house chores. After stretching yourself awake and donning your favorite pair of fluffy socks, you mosey to the kitchen for coffee while listening to this album. That, dear audience, is how it feels to listen to Someday is Today.

Created from the minds of four Manitoba locals—Sam Sarty (vocals, keyboard, bass), Gilad Carroll (guitar), Adam Soloway (guitar) and Brett Ticzon (bass, synth)—Someday is Today is quite the feat for Living Hour. Recorded in just seven days during the –30-degree cold of Canada’s winter, Someday is Today is their most wistful and poignant album to date. In addition to Living Hours’ echoing harmonic sound, the album bolsters the contributions of three wondrous producers: Melina Duterte (Jay Som, Chastity Belt), Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Snail Mail) and Samur Khouja (Cate le Bon, Regina Spektor). Sarty’s lyrics on this album were pulled from iPhone notes, journals and napkin scribbles, giving the album insight into the intimate lives of the band.

Someday Is Today is dreamy; it’s poppy (like the flower), stunning and sleepy with an undertone of indie flair. The 11-track album is speckled with slow and steady sounds juxtaposed with upbeat exhilarating songs. On “Hold Me in Your Mind,” a synthesized beat melds into hymnal organs before Sarty’s voice begins a lullaby-like serenade, which paves the way for the solemn tune of “Lemons and Gin.” 

Undoubtedly depressing, “Lemons and Gin” delves into the world of love lost and how utterly shattered people can feel after a breakup. The song’s acoustic intro matches the raw emotion of Sarty recounting memories in a solemn and melancholic room: “A hundred watts in every bulb above my head / Dandruff on each shoulder again / Recorded conversations at the grocery store out west / Ripped a label off your favorite bottle of champagne.” 

“Feelings Meeting (ft. Jay Som)” is by far my favorite song of the collection due to its immediate, thunderous and rock-heavy intro. Subtle guitar picking quickly turns into a riot of harmonic sound, each instrument surging and swelling in your ears. Sarty’s lyrics are mumbled and washed out, rendering them hard to hear amid the track’s sonic crashing of waves. Perhaps this choice is intentional, sending a message that sometimes it’s hard to make sense of your own voice when a cacophony of emotions are running high. Whatever the reason, it’s a hypnotic track that’s guaranteed to leave you wanting more.

Sarty’s soothing, mesmerizing voice and Living Hour’s cohesive, anesthetic sound create a themed connection across Someday Is Today, one that captures the grand design of life from its exhilarating highs and deep lows. It touches on the “reflections on disassociation, human interactions with technology, and a poignant contemplation of life in liminal spaces,” explains an excerpt from their website. It does so splendidly, leaving a lasting impression on its listeners to meditate on their own life. Check out Living Hour on Instagram @livinghour. –Sage Holt

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