Moderate Rock

Hammock are consistent- since 2005 the Nashville duo have released ten albums, a handful of EPs, and a movie soundtrack- but they’ve never been consistently great. ‘Mysterium’ though, excellent throughout, instantly ranks as one of the best, most blissful things they’ve ever done. Maybe blissful is not the right word- this is a record born from the death of a child and once you know that it’s hard not to hear much of this as desperately desolate. But there is as much peace in the likes of ‘Now and Not Yet’ and the epic ‘Elegy’ as there is heartache. Almost completely devoid of post-rock sounds (Hammock’s steady transformation into a neo-classical act is almost complete), ‘Mysterium’ might not satisfy genre purists but it won’t fail to move everyone else.