Hope

Dirty Three
Horse Stories

I'll go ahead and say it. If you have one Dirty Three album, that's enough. I should know, I have four. Second bold statement of the day-if you are only going to own one D3 record (you cheap so-and-so), make it Horse Stories. You get everything you could possibly want out of a guitar, drums and violin trio right here.

What to say about Dirty Three? Well, the trio boasts some of the most non-descript Aussie white-boy names ever. Warren Ellis. Jim White. Mick Turner. Not exactly names that little boys think they want to change their names to when they grow up. There is no "Joe Kickass" in the bunch. At least the term non-descript does not apply to their music.

"Hope" is a track of, well, hope. At least I think it is. It's kinda hard to tell when there are no vocals. The violin takes the place of any lead singer, and it's super sad on this piece. I think. Then, we switch into the chorus or bridge of the piece, and there it is. The whiny part of the song fades away and the hope emerges. Let's set it straight, this is the track that you want to play when you are downing shots of Rye Whisky to drown whatever pain you have. The song is crying along with you as you ponder how you fucked up whatever it is you did wrong. Then, there's the break in the clouds. Everything will be OK.

Then the song ends and you realize it was just a song and your life is still fucked up. Boo for you.

Truthfully, I like the visualizing-plates-breaking-against-the-wall, everything-is-wrong aspect of "Red" as a standout track on this album. But, as alluded to earlier, there is almost nothing wrong on Horse Stories. Pull it out and listen to it again, you'll see.