HOSTAGE CALM

Please Remain Calm is the punk album of the Great Recession. The Connecticut five-piece has crafted an album that captures the defeat, the heartache--what it feels like to be young in the American Decline. Following up 2010's critically acclaimed self-titled LP, Please Remain Calm combines elements of Springsteen-esque heartland rock with the band's signature blend of 60s pop melody, 70s punk energy and 80s new wave panache. Hostage Calm begin Please Remain Calm with weaving counter-melodic guitars and bass, stitched together with anthemic choruses. Openers ‘On Both Eyes’, ‘Don’t Die On Me Now’ and ‘Brokenheartland’ take the listener through all of the band's signature stylings, setting the mood as the album reveals greater depth and dynamism. A slower, more intimate version of the band's classic ‘The “M” Word‘ features an orchestral arrangement, complete with strings, brass, keys and concert percussion. Immediately following this, the band delivers perhaps its most avant-guarde arrangement, ‘Patriot'; a full a capella ode to a lost love affair with America. What opens as a very electrifying, hit-driven album fully descends into some of the band's most intricate and moving work to date. But Please Remain Calm is more than Hostage Calm's opus: it's their manifesto. Like how London Calling captured the gray and grinding Britain of 1979, this album calls to mind the hopeless college student moving back in with her parents, the bank boarding up the house next door, and the impossibility of love in a time where nothing moves forward. Pushing musical boundaries at every turn, Please Remain Calm never loses its feeling of timelessness.