Hold Fast Hope | Album review

reviewed by Jon Bukiewicz

H

old Fast Hope, an up-and-coming band out of Toronto, Canada, brings us a four song EP entitled Acoustic Ep. The songs on this release The Last, The Lost, The Least, A World That Bleeds, Until Love Comes Through and Never Let Go combine to create an engaging debut that is full of acoustic-based arrangements and challenging lyrics.

Listen to all the tracks on MySpace

With influences ranging from pop/rock bands like Coldplay to Dashboard Confessional and the emotional drive of worship teams like Hillsong United, Hold Fast Hope fill these songs with layers of acoustic guitars, upbeat drums and accents of rock-influenced piano.

They begin the EP with an up-beat track, which serves as a charging, urgent plea for those that have been forgotten around us. Lines like “Don’t we see where we went wrong? Don’t we hear the cries of broken dreams and broken hearts, in a world that is falling apart?” offer a challenge to look beyond the music that they’ve presented on their CD. The vocals are extremely present as their forefront instrument, as if to help the listener realize that this music, while creative in its own right, is serving primarily as a vehicle for the passions of these artists - towards issues of injustice and hope in the world.

The second and third tracks bring to mind a coffee-house, laid back acoustic rock type of feel. The vocal melody line is very relaxed, and confident - ushering in phrases like “It’s up to us, to bring back hope again…” over a really nice groove and a catchy vocal line. On the final track, a laid-back beginning phrase in the music builds up and finally crescendos as Chris Tidd sings “so put down your sorrows, let’s live for something more…”as a way to provide hope in spite of the other challenges that have been brought to light in these songs.

Hold Fast Hope is a band that knows the issues faced by those who are downtrodden. They successfully bring these to the forefront, challenging their listeners to look full on what is happening in the world around them. Themes of loneliness, despair, and hopelessness pervade the pleas of action in service to those in need - while still offering hope and life as the answer to these concerns. This is a band worth checking out, as a challenge and as a band of great musicians, with lots of potential.

Reviewer: Jonathan Bukiewicz lives in downtown Chicago with his wife and their two kids. Presently, Jonathan works as a web coordinator at The Salvation Army’s USA Central Territory Headquarters. He can often be found sitting at his desk, drumming out a silent rhythm while bobbing his head to the sounds coming through his headphones. Spending as much time as he does out in the suburbs, sometimes he has to shed the reality of polos and khakis. On those days, he rides his bike.

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