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HAL | 
| Artist: Hal
Label: Rough Trade Us
Category: Music
List Price: $15.98
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $15.97 (100%)
New (8) Used (20) from $0.01
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 220281
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 021823005829
EAN: 0021823005829
ASIN: B00096S3WW
Release Date: May 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | What a Lovely Dance | | • | Play the Hits | | • | Keep Your Love As Your Golden Rule | | • | Don t Come Running | | • | I Sat Down | | • | My Eyes Are Sore | | • | Fools By Your Side | | • | Worry About the Wind | | • | Satisfied | | • | Slowdown (You Got a Friend) | | • | Coming Right Over |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Hal are brothers Dave (26, lead vocals/guitar) & Paul Allen (23, vocals, bass), Steve Hogan (28, drums) and Stephen O'Brien (27, keyboards). All hail from in and around Kiliney, a town just south of Dublin, Ireland. Hal's debut album is populist and arcane, modern and timeless. Most groups aren't endowed with a voice as breathtaking as Dave Allen's, whose falsetto gives Hal's songs a saintly luster and evokes the days when rock was sun-kissed. The harmonies he forges with brother Paul (it's a blood thing, see Everly Brothers and the Wilson brothers) are warm enough to melt the coldest of hearts.
Album Description
Dublin four-piece Hal are a band with the confident swagger of musicians happy to recall a near forgotten era when the likes of Todd Rundgren or Brian Wilson could bestride both the cutting edge and mainstream taste with ease. Rough Trade. 2005.
Album Details
Hal's Debut Album is the Sound of Four Young Irish Men By-passing the Computerised Production Line of 21st Century Music to Create Both a Perfect Piece of Pop Joy and an Aching Heartbreaker of an Album. Features the Glorious Singles "Play the Hits", "What a Lovely Dance" (Top 40), and "Worry About the Wind" (Top 50). Citing Harry Nilsson, Brian Wilson and Van Morrison as Direct Influences, their Classic Yet Quirky 70s West Coast FM Pop Influenced Sound is as Polished as Steely Dan, as Heartfelt as Al Green.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Best Album of the Year June 24, 2005
Emmi Skywalker (Netherlands)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
How to describe this music? I'd say: Brian Wilson meets the Beatles. It is clear that the Allen brothers grew up with their parent's music, including the Beach Boys, The Beatles and other 60's and 70's music. Though their music is more like Smile than the Beach Boys albums.
HAL has re-entered a path in music that has only been trodden by Brian Wilson before them. Their music is extremely cheerful, very catching but above all things: truly beautiful!
Finally a young band that dares to make music inspired by the oldies! Some might worry that a debut album this good can hardly be exceeded by a second album, but I do not fear this. HAL has so much musical talents and the fact that their music is unique!
This album is a must for those who love beautiful music inspired by the 60's and 70's. I have rarely heard a better debut album in my life!
For better samples, go to HAL's website: www.halmusic.com
the missing sequal to Pet Sounds September 23, 2005
David D. Dudley (Washington, DC)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Allen brothers voices are simply amazing and the arrangements are flawless. The care they bring to each song is evident, in that each one is its own universe, but somehow the album maintains a cohesive tone. Each song has unexpected but plesant surprises -- an a cappela break here and or an acoustic bridge there. It's one of the few albums over the last five years that bears repeated playing, always offering something new to the attentive listener.
If you loved Pet Sounds, you need to own this album!
Beautiful Music June 11, 2006
andrew johnstone (Morrinsville, New Zealand)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Melody, harmony, sophisticated lyric, thoughtfull arrangement. This album is full of great songs. Its uplifting and timeless in the way the best pop music is. Have been playing it for a year and have never tired of it. Favourite track:Worry about the wind.
 Sweet Summer Pop November 2, 2005
Nick Fulton (Wellington, New Zealand)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you're a huge Beach Boys fan, then you will almost certainly dig this band. For a bunch of lads from Ireland, Hal's sound is distinctly American. You could slot this record into a box set of classic albums from the 1960s San Francisco scene and no one would blink twice. Lester Bangs probably wouldn't even notice. It's refreshing to hear a band brave enough to bring back happy, lazy Sunday, summer pop.
Hal's self titled debut attempts to strangle the current rock progression, directing music back to a time when musicians bought love and peace into everyone's living room. There're no songs about shooting, pimps or drugs, just eleven beautifully crafted love songs. The soft melodic lyrics roll off David Allen's tongue effortlessly, and the sweet piercing backing vocals give Hal's sound a definitive edge. I'd love to say something bad about this album; there just isn't anything bad to say. Each song is different from the last, all charming in their own special way, each with the potential to make you suddenly burst into song at any moment. "Satisfied" and "Slow Down (You've Got a Friend)" run slightly repetitively into each other, but its no big deal
As the weather starts to warm up, spin this album, grab a beer and something to smoke and just chill out. When Hal finishes, have your vinyl copies of Crosby, Stills and Nash's 'Renaissance Fare' and Simon and Garfunkel's 'Bookends' ready to spin. You'll have all you need for a afternoon in the sun.
 Sweet voice, Boring tunes? September 22, 2006
Eddie Wannabee (Western Hemisphere)
Hal's lead singer has a sweet voice but their song writing abilities leave a little to be desired. After a while one realizes that these songs are boring mostly, a little too "mushy" to be taken seriously. I liked a lot "Fools by your side" for it brings so many bad memories of people I very much should have left alone (I do not put myself above in that list, I am sure that at one time or another I was a fool to someone!) and I love "Keep love as your golden rule". After that, it is a lukewarm affair with no more impressive moments. Want to know a secret? Try Aberfeldy's "Young Forever" and delight yourself on a magnifecent CD. What I was hoping for with Hal is to find a band that not necessarily delved into the darker side of songs but quite the opposite. They did not deliver and I thought they would. Too many CD's end up being kind of mediocre, rare is the time when one CD is so good that you get tingles all over just by owning one. 3 stars at the most for Hal's "Hal".
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