What they call shoegazing, with slightly psychedelic undertones, should be enough to describe Holler, Wild Rose!. Ambient rock with a lot of echoing voices and instruments, and a guitar that has submitted its sound to the effects pedal are the main characteristics of the band. John Mosloskie’s vocals are a slightly lower pitch, though otherwise very similar to those of Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Through some notes he is almost indistinguishable from Thom Yorke, but overall, lacks the emotional involvement of Yorke vocals. The lyrics to those vocals have the same affect, being pretty in some places while never reaching the “beautiful” as they remain to abstract to solidify a feeling.
As with some other shoegazing and ambient rock bands, Holler, Wild Rose!’s instrumentation mostly serves to reinforce the vocals or carry out the melody, however, the band does make some interesting choices when they break from those roles. The title track is a powerful song, though largely reliant on driving harmonies. On the bridges during “Theif in our Bed,” one of the guitarists strums out an effect that sounds like a muffled banjo. On “Sun Vines,” my favorite song on the album, there is a significant and distinguishable melody and interesting vocal fluctuations. To contrast the echoing melody, the band adds whistling and a xylophone-like synthesizer to the track, making “Sun Vines” the most well rounded, finished, and distinct piece on the album.
Holler, Wild Rose! Is both troublesome and promising. Their songs range from the simply powerful to the instrumentally complex, and they are worth a listen, if not a few listens.