Collage work and dedicated efforts have led to a point of new winnings for Lots of Hands. Their fifth album, the first on the Fire Talk record label, Into a Pretty Room, is certainly an achievement. Expect something. It is not clear how Into a Pretty Room begins, with the scattershot of electronic tones, the muffled moments and the positively reversed vocal and instrumental sections. Lots of Hands has nothing to prove to anyone but themselves and there is a beating satisfaction which rests so well with this fifth effort, a continuation of their scrapbook style of music-making. Collage instrumentals are dependent on the aesthetic devices it can conjure, and, for the most part, this Lots of Hands effort is a success. Infectious instrumental joys are Into a Pretty Room’s dependable high. Thankfully there is plenty of it.
Ghostly whispers on Barnyard get to the crux of their efforts. These are memories and as performative and impactful tas hey may be, they eventually slip from our minds. None of it is permanent, even if experienced. Those days spent in Newcastle-adjacent fields, nights spent hoping for them to expand or explode with some fresh opportunity the day after, all of it can be felt on Into a Pretty Room which, at its best, connects those naturalistic experiences with a Stateside sentimentality. Perhaps it is the American domination of dream and bedroom pop genres of late that has Lots of Hands playing into those fundamentals, but they make it their own and the roaring yawns of acoustic beauties pour through with such a dramatic increase in quality on Game of Zeroes. Wistful notions pour through with a hands-on experience twisting the usually light tones of the countryside. There is depth in those hills and Lots of Hands plunder it well.
Rosie is where the album begins to build, the alternate rock-like focus taken before Into a Pretty Room slips back into some heavy acoustic power on a Mage Tears-featuring In B Tween, is magnificent. These instrumental progressions are warm and, if you play it loud enough, Lots of Hands plants you right in the fields where they farmed these influences. Warmth in acoustic guitar work is all well and good but Lots of Hands is not content with it. Adding those electronic moments, the glitch pop ties, are all the difference. Into a Pretty Room holds firm with those moments on The Rain and it makes for some of the strongest works to be found on the album. Their desire to remind listeners of the collage-like state of this work is what makes it such a welcoming and familiar, yet fresh attempt on the genre and its instrumental consistencies.
Lots of Hands are willing to explore the extremes of this sound, whatever the cost. Such a bold notion is what makes all the difference on Into a Pretty Room. Daring experimentation is what leads to something as brilliant as Backseat 30, the electric firing through it as great a reason as any to keep an eye on Lots of Hands, the duo has what it takes to leap from Into a Pretty Room, to mould it with keen and exciting ideas. They provide just as much throughout this fifth album. Latter-stage album tracks like Fun and Loving feel like interpretations of instrumentals found in the final moments of some forgotten soundtrack. They are rebellious pieces of work, the whole of Into a Pretty Room is. That is what makes it such an energising listen.
