In all of Logan Hartley’s time with his band Fine Mortar, the term hipster didn’t really come up. That was probably because it was implicit, baked into everything they did. No one likes being called a hipster, it is a label attached in a derogatory tone most often, but there was really no other way to describe Fine Mortar.
On Hope Without Hoping, Hartley takes us in a new direction by weaving ambient midtempo textures into songs that only superficially depart from his old haunts. Songs like “Twice is Two” and especially “Worldfire” (the album opener) give the impression that this is a shift in genre, but not in tone. There are the crashing indie guitars, of course, but the mix tones them down and gives them a more muted feel, supporting the rolling rhythms of the songs but never standing out. Lyrics like “Everyone watches it turn / We’re here to watch the fire burn” (on “Worldfire”) give a bit of a poetic thrill, and don’t sound basic, but do have something of a lack of gravitas. That was a problem with Fine Mortar too, and something that Hartley hasn’t completely escaped. A finer focus would keep him sounding less like Special Interest without a backbeat.
Hope Without Hoping is a mostly coherent effort, though that might come at the expense of variety. It’s always a balancing act, of course. The 47 minute running time gives these ideas room to breathe, though the midpoint track of “Hannah’s Lament” does feel a bit overextended and indulgent. In particular, the looped glitch organ line between what seems like the A part and B part goes on probably a good 45 seconds too long. The lyric “Where is it going / where has it gone / where are you staying / are we moving on?” (from “Alabaster”) gives a great insight into an artist who may find himself lost at this point in his career, and speaks to the feel of the album as a whole.
In interviews around the release, Hartley has repeatedly denied that he is trying to do anything as cliché as “reinvent” himself (how hipster of him!). He will tell you that he is exploring new sonic directions. We can take him at his word at that, but the fact remains that Hope Without Hoping ends up sounding stranded between familiar territory and uncharted land that we’re not sure we want to go to.