Hope

Hope is a work on which Harem Scarem tightly concentrates the virtues of melodic hard rock around Harry Hess’s soaring, expressive singing and Pete Lesperance’s precise, beautiful guitar. The mature songs, cultivated over long years of activity, value strong, memorable hooks above all, yet firmly keep the intelligent, sure craft particular to this band in the details of rhythm and chord progression. Its great appeal is that brisk, open choruses and a somehow slightly shadowed, wistful melody coexist naturally across the whole work. Rather than relying on flash or large-scale tricks, it believes in the force of beautiful melody itself and carefully sounds it with mature playing. The well-matched teamwork of the rare duo of Hess and Lesperance shines throughout. A record that quietly but powerfully shows that, even after a long career, the band has not lost the core of its own musicality in the least. Rather than chasing flashy change, it keeps heightening the quality of the melodic rock it does best. Inscribing a consistent stance of believing in melody to the end in mature, beautiful sound, it is a richly flavored, fulfilling work full of a veteran’s sure appeal.