Hockey – Learn To Lose

Here’s a band that has been virtually tailor-made for success. Endowed with a singer who has the rockstar book of delivery down pat (shifting effortlessly between coarse yelling and funky falsetto), the kind of pristine production more commonly associated with New York dance acts, and unashamed pop inclinations, Portland-based Hockey simply can’t fail. And that’s just the problem: they sound too good. Learn To Lose is a peppy blast of indie-funk; a flurry of spidery guitar trickery, swirling synths and ooh-aah backing vocals. It’s undeniably catchy, but the sum of the parts is undeniably lacking in something.