Fellow aging hipsters may hear hints of mid-2000s Athens/Atlanta band Morning State in Holopaw, the band led by former Ugly Casanova collaborator John Orth. Recorded in Holopaw’s home state of Florida, where the group shacked up together in a beach house, the country-tinged Academy Songs, Volume 1 sounds tight, confident and intimate. But the album doesn’t retain much of the bright warmth of the Sunshine State. Set in an all-boys prep school, the record charts the exploration and line-stepping that comes with adolescence. As the film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower proved, playing with such themes can be a little limiting, and Academy Songs sticks mainly to one emotional note, but Orth’s well-crafted songs are sure to make for a good, if somber, live set.
Read our interview with Holopaw’s John Orth on Homedrone.
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