Horse Jumper of Love returns with their most urgently-deliberate work to date on their 5th full-length album, Disaster Trick. Reinforcing the slow-core ethos that they’ve become synonymous with, blending it with the evocative lyricism of frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos’ and the band’s most impenetrable arrangements yet, Disaster Trick feels like a welcoming dark cloud mellowing out the summer heat and bringing in the dreary fall rain.

“Would you pull me a feather from your pillow? I wanna dream like you,” Giannopoulos sings on album opener “Snow Angel,” a song which features a guitar solo from indie-rock staple MJ Lenderman and vocal performance from Ella Williams (Squirrel Flower). “Snow Angel” eases you in with its swaying acoustic guitar before going full wall of sound, akin to Starflyer 59 or Hum. But just when you think you’re gonna get hit with another blistering alt-rock track, Horse Jumper slows it right back down on “Wink.” What at first felt like an unassuming slow-core track quickly became a favorite song of mine from the album. Featuring one of the records most memorable chorus’, on which you can hear Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman singing harmonies, “Wink” is a dramatic, swelling and swaying head-nodder.

“Today’s Iconoclast” feels like a really classic Horse Jumper song. A slow, tense chord progression sits under the mellow-drama of Giannopoulos’ stark lyrical passages, followed closely by the unwavering rhythm section of John Margais and Jamie Doran. Perhaps, not something we haven’t heard from the band before. But, it is undeniably interesting guitar work and features some melodies that have been replaying in my head ever since hearing them. I
especially like the series of lines, “Spit smacks on porcelain. Mary down the drain. The beating of a white wing.” Beautifully abrupt.

“Lip Reader” could be my personal favorite song on the album. It’s so dark and densely emotive. It’s the band’s most timeless songwriting yet, but is still very clearly Horse Jumper. The band goes full slow-core on the album’s most dynamic track, “Wait by the Stairs.” A bleak, gnawing guitar line follows a harrowing vocal performance by Diannopoulos’ until the song seemingly opens itself up in the second half. What starts as a Codeine-esque tune, ends with some Jesu-like guitar work. Hell yeah. The guitar tracking mastery of album producer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo De Souza) really came in handy on this track.

“Gates of Heaven,” comparatively to the rest of the album’s tracklist, feels like a really sweet, upbeat tune. In a way, its warmth feels really refreshing. Album closer “Nude Descending” is similarly more upbeat and features some of the album’s most sporadically, spastic guitar playing. “You know I can’t spend the night,” Giannopoulos sings; in a way that feels like he’s saying “so long for now” to the listener.

Disaster Trick is a welcome addition to Horse Jumper of Love’s catalog, and highlights further growth from them as a band and as songwriter’s.

Pre-order Disaster Trick HERE