By: William Goltz

Mirage- Hooky

There is a video on Instagram of Hooky performing in an art gallery in Texas, which is one of the most euphoric things I have ever seen. They are playing a song called “Goodbye”, the shimmering outro to their 2024 album Mirage, and the crowd is going insane. The name of the festival they’re at, ‘THANKS4EXISTING’, is flashing on the wall behind them. Performing as a duo with just a single chorused-out Stratocaster and a flashing sampler, Hooky tears the room apart when the drums come in. 

As much as rankings and ‘best of’ lists have always seemed to be one of the most contrived traditions that come with writing about music, calling Mirage my album of the year feels like a weirdly easy choice. Being cynical doesn’t change how much Hooky’s music sounds like 2024 to me. A woozy, intoxicating mix of warm guitars and synths, crunchy digital drums, and distant, manipulated vocals, Hooky songs come together and land somewhere in a hazy but recognisable near future. Essentially the solo project of Philadelphia songwriter and producer Scott Turner, Hooky is one of the most unique and singular acts to have emerged from a Philly ‘new-gaze’ scene which has already produced some of the most progressive and forward-thinking acts in modern guitar music. Proudly signed to the local Julia’s War record label headed up by TAGABOW maestro Doug Dulgarian, Hooky has stayed unique in an exciting company. Calling their music shoegaze is fun not because it’s wrong but because it feels like a litmus test for what your friends think guitar music should be. While the idea of being ‘post-genre’ gets thrown around a lot, Hooky has more fun than anyone doing what they want. “Heart Eyes” sounds like what would happen if you asked Alex G to make a trip-hop song. “Enter Capman” has a brief 80’s chase music interlude that made me laugh really loudly on a plane when I first heard it. If the genre was in fact dead in 2024, Hooky might have played the wake. 

Being honest, though, I hardly spent as much time as I did listening to Hooky last year just because I think they sum up the direction of modern guitar music. Weird new stuff can be bad, like the updated Instagram layout. For all of its unique and impressive production, Hooky’s music works because it wears its naive heart on its sleeve. As distant and distorted as Turner’s vocals are mixed, there is a real longing in them which keeps the album’s surrealist turns grounded. As jokingly as I mentioned Alex G earlier, he seems to loom large on this album in songs like “Mirror” and “Company”, whose quiet hopefulness is rooted in child-like dreams of honesty and friendship. There is something deeply intimate about Mirage that feels consistent with its dense and unbounded production. You can really hear where the guitars are looped and the drums are chopped. Hooky’s music never feels amateurish, but Turner wants you to feel his own hands working out his music. Listening to Mirage feels like going through the laptop of a friend who is annoyingly good with Ableton. Nothing should sum up music in 2024 better than that. 

Will reviews Hooky's 'Mirage', his pick for the Beaver's best album of 2024

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