{"product_id":"hobknobs-helmets-off-lp","title":"* PREORDER * HOBKNOBS - Helmets Off LP","description":"\u003cp\u003e* PREORDER * expected to arrive Sept\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHighly recommended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnybody looking for a further fix of LEWSBERG, look no further! Has a strong NZ \/ AUST jangle vibe too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHelmets Off can be described as an honest attempt at honesty. Although all options are open at the moment of conception, the end result often remains bare. Instruments come in when they are needed, but the songs apparently don't need that much at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery word and every strum sounds like it's placed in exactly the right moment. Perhaps it is this bareness of the songs, that makes it feel as if The Hobknobs are speaking to the listener directly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is clear that they don't want anything to cloud this human interaction. An interaction that appears to come with a certain playfulness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYaël Dekker, whom you may also know as the singer of The Klittens, and Arie van Vliet, who used to spread his word through the band Lewsberg, were once described as loving misanthropes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eListening to the album, this description seems rather accurate. A consoling song like \"The Mind\" sounds haunting. Even words seem to have lost their meaning in \"Dictionary\". Songs that seem cheerful and naive at first appear to be pleadings on second listen. And is \"Enarmoured\" a pro-war protest song? What war do they want to fight?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDekker and Van Vliet's voices seem to know each other well, in a way that magnifies the songs on \"Helmets Off\" beyond their deceptive simplicity. Together with the minimal production by Jaap van der Velde, it makes that the album hits the sweet spot somewhere in the middle of 'instantly familiar' and 'no one else sounds quite like this’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Karina Gill from San Francisco-based group Cindy wrote about The Hobknobs: \"To describe the music of The Hobknobs, use the word 'natural'. And what you will mean is: fitted to itself; essentially, albeit politely, uninterested in whether or not you're looking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzGbzDuUFLs?si=q0XxosfMVxkTOfnJ\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"12XU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44686427914282,"sku":"HOBKNOBS - Helmets Off LP","price":47.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1273\/6111\/files\/hobknobs-helmetsoff.jpg?v=1786514768","url":"https:\/\/www.strangeworldrecords.com.au\/products\/hobknobs-helmets-off-lp","provider":"Strangeworld Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}