A versatile post-rock sound, spanning both lush orchestration and impassioned guitar energy, shows on the new album Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows, the latest from Danny Peck. The Michigan-based artist describes the album as “about starting over, it’s about growing older and facing one’s intensifying thoughts around legacy and mortality.” He continues: “I made this while going through a lot of changes in my life, and honestly it’s also a lifetime culmination of my own creative process.”
Opening track “To Rise and Fall” exudes a symphonic intrigue in its shimmering strings and pulsing rhythmic elements. Wordless vocal lushness lingers in the background as a more serene disposition takes hold, traversing to an uptick in grandiosity as the three-minute mark passes. Bouncy synths stir thereafter, further showcasing a tonal variety between triumphant orchestration and electronic lushness. The eventual blast of guitars continues the anthemic vigor, resembling Sigur Rós enjoyably in its structural ascent.
A multitude of other highlights show throughout. “The Gate” is a masterclass in structural development, moving from simmering orchestral beauty into glistening guitars and washes of percussive momentum. Elsewhere, the epic “Time Is Not Real” spans over ten minutes of atmospheric gorgeousness, featuring a lushly inviting vocal presence that cohesively navigates into a more rock-forward vigor at mid-point and beyond. Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows is a dynamic success from Danny Peck, succeeding in both peaceful spaciousness and rock-friendly invigoration.
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“To Rise and Fall” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
