Hundred Waters - Communicating

Hundred Waters
Communicating
2017
Spotify

Hundred Waters have a really interesting way of completely enveloping you with their music. Just when you expect something normal to come from them, they turn it on it's head and bring something different and often refreshing. The opening track to this new record Communicating "Particle" has this really disparate electronic production and just when you think they are building you up to a standard EDM drop, it shifts into a deeper exploration punctuated with Nicole Migilis' soft delivery. If Odesza is the biggest version of this kind of music Hundred Waters are that small indie act, similar but distinct and this allows them to take more risks and try new things. A delicate touch really keeps the music from going to far down the dance path leaving you with a more personal experience with Communicating rather than a communal one. Lyrically much of the album feels like a missed connection, someone reaching out unsure if they are going to find anything on the other end. That sense of a private place or something secret really comes across on tracks like "Prison Guard". It becomes about isolation but always hoping for more, hoping for someone to recognize you in the crowd. Calling the album melancholy is an understatement, it is filled with sad sentiments coupled swith uplifting music to give you this really great push and pull. It seems like there is no stone Hundred Waters won't overturn to try and find some special nugget of music to throw at you.

One of the issues with the melancholy starting point however is that tends to drag on and on. "Re:" is one of the first points you notice just how slow this album is. It's patience on one hand but on the other you are desperate for them to get to the fucking point. Sure the surreal vibe and the distant choir on "Re:" are interesting but they go no where and the song just sort of deflates into nothing. "Communicating" is not only one note, it is just one line of music over and over until it spills into "Blanket Me" which itself is so damn repetitive with almost a full minute of Migilis singing "blanket me" again and again. These are not coming at triumphant moments where you want to repeat a phrase over and over because it is all you can do, they just sort of come out of no where and really ruin the final third of the record. Communicating is a nice album, but it really fails to live up to some of the expectations of the early tracks. You want so much more but Hundred Waters just never deliver. The final song "Better" somewhat brings you around, but it is a little to late to save this album which in the end falls flat.

5.9 out of 10