Hoop - Super Genuine

Vinyl LP pressing. Music fans are thirsty for songs that help them process their frustrations with modern relationships. Super Genuine, the debut from Seattle four-piece Hoop, is a soft rock album for people who are sorting out unhealthy power dynamics, whether it's with a friend, a partner, a family member, an authority figure, or the dystopian reality we all live in. Hoop began as a recording project between songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Caitlin Roberts (Autococoon) and Nich Wilbur (Hungry Cloud Darkening) at Wilbur's studio The Unknown in Anacortes, WA, while Roberts was living in town for eight months in 2014. The recording exhibits sparse yet driving instrumentation and calm distortion, iced with Roberts' moody, deliberate vocal performance, and Allyson Foster's (Mount Eerie, LAKE, Stephen Steinbrink) hi-fi ear-candy vocal cameos. Super Genuine is grunge nostalgia augmented by the emotional intelligence of a 21st-century feminist and the sensibilities of a skilled producer. By the end of the first half of the record, the emotive undercurrent has only tugged at the listener's toes. The songs on Side B are deeply personal and startlingly vulnerable. The arc of the album details Roberts' struggle to trust her instincts, stand up for herself, and be authentic in a verbally abusive relationship.