Beat Magazine 19 March 2003

Beat Magazine
19 March 2003

Live review @ Rob Roy
The Tulips
Andrew McCubbin and the Hope Addicts
Elizabeth McCarthy
(extract)

Andrew McCubbin follows up with a much more melancholy set of tunes. The Hope Addicts utilise double bass, cello and guitars to fine affect, and not having seen them before and not really expecting anything, I was quietly (nice and quiet, it’s that kind of setting) dumbfounded that they were rather brilliant. They’re sort of Dirty 3ish, but with the part you miss most - vocals. Not just run-of-the-mill vocals, but Mark Lanegan-like vocals. Yet this is no poor man, 2nd rate, wannabe outfit. It’s all their own. The music isn’t trying to be anything outside of what it is: rich and sad and grounded in aches and pains. The fact that they play as sun shines outdoors makes for a juxtaposition that doesn’t send you as far down as you might dive if you heard it sometime around July.