Music Review: Say Hi - Oohs & Aahs

I donned earbuds and iPod and ran ten percent farther than I normally do while listening to Say Hi’s latest record, Oohs & Aahs. It won’t be advertised on the cover or in the liner notes, but it may do the same for you. Oohs & Aahs is quite a bit cheaper than buying yoga lessons too. Maybe if you listen to Say Hi, you will keep your New Year’s resolution! Maybe you will buff out, and girls will swoon (or guys will ogle). Maybe you will be the person you always wanted to be but were afraid was only a pipe dream.

Maybe not. You’ll have some good music to show for it though. Oohs & Aahs, an album of enjoyable indie rock, will regale you with songs of yearning for love. Reverb will encapsulate you in caves and all the while you’ll keep a smile upon your face. On “Elouise” – don’t you wish you could fall in love with a girl named Elouise? – an unattainable indie radio jockey plays in a side band and makes the boys want to put a ring on her finger. “Maurine” bears the line “I hope you grow old and I hope you find somebody nice,” a prayer for the one that got away.

Say Hi (formerly Say Hi to Your Mom) hasn’t made a bad album to date, and Oohs & Aahs keeps their good name intact. It’s an easy album to like and an easy listen. Catchy too. “Hallie and Henry” and “November was White, December was Grey” are the ones that’ll get stuck in your head. Horns add flesh to “Hallie and Henry” while “Hallie’s gonna pop unless that Henry learns to stop” infects the bones.

Oohs & Aahs isn’t the most inventive record out this year, but it may be one of the best. It’ll be the one on repeat, and the one that gets passed around. It will be the one that gets imeemed and Facebooked. Well, here’s hoping those things happen. It’d be a shame for a record like this to be boringly played on a hi-fi.

Article Author: Luke Johnson

As a slacker in college, Luke was way too lazy to be a Business major. He heard a buddy say English was way easier. A couple of creative writing classes later and a Film Studies minor underway, something told Luke that good stories were where it was at whether aural, visual, or text-ual. …

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