It's been seven years since Hopewell main man Jason Russo vacated his gig as bassist for Mercury Rev, but even after three albums, the spiritual ties have proven more difficult to sever than the professional ones. When in a sentimental mood, Russo resorts to a helium-high timbre that's highly reminiscent of his former boss Jonathan Donahue, while Hopewell, much like the Rev, are fond of using grandiose gestures to punctuate very simple emotions: namely, love and fear. And both bands operate according to the firm belief that the only way to follow up a massive, orchestro-rock crescendo is with another crescendo.
No doubt Russo is probably getting a little tired of reading Hopewell reviews that immediately revert to discussion of a band he left before Bush's first presidency. But he doesn't do much to dissuade the comparisons by opening Beautiful Targets with "In Full Bloom", a sweet, symphonic lullaby that could've been lifted off side two of Mercury Rev's All Is Dream: pensive, vulnerable verses alternate with a bright, swooning chorus, while a chirpy string section sets the moonlit scene. But as much as the melody and arrangement reinforce the Rev connection, the song's acoustic/percussion-less base signals a shift away from the stargazing psychedelic splendor of 2005's Hopewell & The Birds of Appetite towards a more grounded sound.
And with that comes the realization that the nervous energy in Russo's piercing voice can adapt just as easily to herky-jerky, post-punky rock: With its shouted vocal hook, spiky guitar riff and four-to-the-floor drumbeat, "All Angels Road" is a few white-belt notches away from Hot Hot Heat, though its rumbling piano backbone keeps the new-wave affectations in check. The dry, unfussy production-- with the vocals upfront and instruments clearly separated in the mix-- can sometimes expose the limitations of Russo's voice (see: the cloying "Bethlehem"), but for the most part, Hopewell benefits greatly from a more direct approach, particularly on the breathless power-pop stomp "Echo & His Brother" and the excellent centerpiece track "Monolith", which patiently uses its four-minute run time to build a finger-picked acoustic foundation into a surging, piano-powered rocker.
But in spite of these promising developments, Beautiful Targets still represents more a tentative transition than a major transformation, its tracklist alternating regularly between the concise pop songs mentioned above and drawn-out, space-bound ballads more typical to the Hopewell canon. The latter camp is best represented by "Tree", a stoner serenade in the tradition of The Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" that yields a volcanic eruption of symphonic swirls, blaring brass and wailing, wah-wahed guitars. It's a hell of a finale-- except it appears just four songs into the album, and effectively plays Hopewell's crescendo card way too early; by the time similarly-structured epics like "Afterglow" and "To the Slaughter" turn up in Beautiful Targets' home stretch, you can pretty much set your watch to when the strings come in. That's the funny thing about excess: it's most effective in small doses.
