What a difference a few years can make. Taking some time off and working on various other projects in the interim, Tim Furnish returns to his
Parlour project with a full-fledged band. The advantages of this expansion are immediately noticeable within the opening minutes of the lead-off track, "Such."
Furnish and company give
Hives Fives a full-bodied sound with a broader range of instrumentation and more sonic possibilities for improvisation than before, especially in comparison to his previous releases. The endless comparisons that could be made to fellow post-rockers such as
Tortoise and
Dismemberment Plan are inevitable, especially when contrasting arrangements. But from a wider perspective, that's not exactly bad company to keep. At four tracks and 20 minutes in length, it's exactly the right amount of material to keep it from being a bogged-down, filler-happy full album (which is a temptation to hear no doubt). But here's hoping that this is just a teaser for things to come in the immediate future. ~ Rob Theakston