Over the course of their previous five records, Quiet Hounds have remained a fairly mutable entity. Not changelings, mind you, able to slip in and out of entirely different skins, but adaptable enough to keep listeners off guard and on their toes. The band’s last LP, Characteristics of Living Things, was a pensive and wistful affair anchored by its shimmering centerpiece “Emperors.” That album found the group experimenting in varying degrees with new textures and atmospheres, but for the most part it remained rooted in the firm clay soil of Southern indie rock, folk, and Americana the quartet had been tilling for years.
With Everything Else is Noise, however, Quiet Hounds found themselves seeking out lush new terrain to sow. The seven-song effort is the group’s most pop-centric effort to date, a sprawling, radiant work that explores an array of varying sonic avenues. While for most bands adopting a greater pop presence simply means chasing down more anthemic hooks and brighter sounds, for Quiet Hounds the process meant rethinking their identity as a group and assuming greater risks.
