Hospital Bracelet - South Loop Summer album review

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"South Loop Summer is an unequivocally razor-sharp and riveting listen"

Hospital Bracelet
(Image credit: Supplied)

HOSPITAL BRACELET
South Loop Summer
COUNTER INTUITIVE

For an album with track names like “Feral Rat Anthem” and “Sober Haha Jk Unless”, the debut from the new‑wave emo jammers in Hospital Bracelet is unpredictably tight, earnest and impassioned. There’s an enticingly grimy, lo-fi bite to the production at large and the strummy, overdriven leads that carry the faster and heavier‑hitting cuts along; but every performance feels calculated and committed, noodly fingerpicked rhythm lines and emphatically strained vocal runs driving cuts that elicit as much emotion as they do energy. 

The album ebbs and flows between raw, battered emo slow-burners and bold, bombastic punk anthems perfectly tailored for singalongs; if far too short, South Loop Summer is an unequivocally razor-sharp and riveting listen.

Ellie Robinson
Ellie Robinson
Editor-at-Large, Australian Guitar Magazine

Ellie Robinson is an Australian writer, editor and dog enthusiast with a keen ear for pop-rock and a keen tongue for actual Pop Rocks. Her bylines include music rag staples like NME, BLUNT, Mixdown and, of course, Australian Guitar (where she also serves as Editor-at-Large), but also less expected fare like TV Soap and Snowboarding Australia. Her go-to guitar is a Fender Player Tele, which, controversially, she only picked up after she'd joined the team at Australian Guitar. Before then, Ellie was a keyboardist – thankfully, the AG crew helped her see the light…