Album Review : Hundred Reasons Release Glorious Sunset, 16 Years After Last LP

Remember that relationship that just ended for no real reason? At different points in your lives, wanting different things, but despite the good times, you shake hands and walk away never looking over your shoulder.

Sure, you hear about what they’re up to, from friends, but after awhile they become a distant memory, consigned to history.

We first hooked up in 2002, when we had Ideas Above Our Station in common. Then the relationship grew with the addition of Shatterproof Is Not A Challenge, and all parties were happy. However, the title belied what was ahead and a flirtation with V2 records. We called it a day after Kill Your Own in 2006 and lost touch soon after, despite being drunk dialled one evening a year later by Quick The Word, Sharp The Action.

Then one day, you stumble on an old photo and memories come flooding back. Out of the blue you get a text, hoping you’re ok and they’re in the area, inviting you for coffee. No? Just me then?

Well, that is exactly how I feel about this new album Glorious Sunset from Hundred Reasons. 16 years on you’re intrigued. Will they be just how you remember them? Will they have put on a bit of weight? Is the spark still there? Have they just got in touch to tell you of their impending demise?

Truth is, life has been kind to a Hundred Reasons during their hiatus. They’ve had time to mature, reflect on life and absorb their surroundings. All of that combines to deliver an album every bit as good as their debut.

With Larry Hibbitt self-producing, there is a link with those early songs, an organic progression, that using some Billy Big Potatoes producer could have trampled flat, destroying that history.

Title track, Glorious Sunset, opens poignantly to my theme. An ode to grief, reminding that despite the pain around losing something or someone, regretting time waste or words unsaid, we should still celebrate what’s been lost, the life once lived. It’s a thumping, thunderous palette cleanser, setting the tone for what’s about to unfurl.

New Glasses is about opening your eyes to see who someone really is, taking action about that revelation.

There’s still the big riffery of youth, but there’s a definite maturity, more melodic approach. This is probably borne out of not still competing with their peers from 20 years ago, the lack of pressure, being part of a scene, which has allowed them to experiment and be more expansive in the song writing. Other bands like You And Me at Six and All Time Low, slipped in to fill the vacuum left by their absence, but this set of songs will go some way to reasserting themselves as the true royalty of emo/post-hardcore.

This new maturity is never more evident than with Replicate, complete with orchestral strings!

The songs definitely seem to take this reconnection theme throughout, hinting that new a beginning is possible, ditching baggage and baring souls, cards on the table. Whether Glorious Sunset would have been even half as good as it is, without that break is debatable. It could have ended up being a bloated parody of its early days, but yet here it is, older, wiser, a little thicker round the waist maybe but a whole lot more relaxed and focussed and dare I say a little more sexier. Dad bod rock?

I’m glad she’s, sorry, they’re, back in my life and now we can begin to explore a new beginning together. I just hope that dawn comes again after this sunset.

Glorious Sunset is out now on all major platforms. If you’re quick you might still be able to catch them on tour with Hell Is For Heroes and My Vitriol Tickets here