The most distinct element on The Quantum Explorers from Hello Dragon is apparent from the very first lyric of the album, "Smoked crack with a princess at the end of the world…" The mix of epic and mundane, sacred and profane, pervades the entire album; with titles like "Millions of Terrible Moths," "Good Cops and Coke Fiends" and "Stephen Hawking," who could expect anything else? Not to mention a self-proclaimed interest in "animal rights, quantum mechanics, El Chupacabra, vacuum tubes and cheap sounding synthesizers." (In reality, there is nothing cheap-sounding about their synthesizers. Cheeky, yes, but cheap… never.)
Led by Chris Zerby, Hello Dragon's stream-of -consciousness lyrics and just-slightly-too-serious-to-be-tongue-in-cheek delivery give this record a nonchalant vibe that is no doubt a product of the furnace of fake noses and glitter (Los Angeles) that has forged scores of great bands. A sort of Californian indifference to the bizarre and the apocalyptic also feature prominently, though the lack of authentically up-tempo numbers after the first track seems to belie a melancholy that one might not notice with a mere cursory glance at the lyrics. Aside from the geeky synths, a significant part of the sound of Hello Dragon are the (occasionally ominous) chugging rhythm guitar lines which always seem to be just on the cusp of really letting loose, giving the listener a mental image of lethargic rock stars too lazy to flip the switch on the distortion.
The back half of the album almost acts as a sort of "coming down" for the first half. The lyrics take a spin for the emotional and philosophically deep. "My good friend died of cancer last year; he withered away and then disappeared for good. If you think you should act then maybe you should…" sings Zerby on one of the best songs of the album, "Automatic Friends." Other highlights include the lilting "Dirt and the Body," "Birds of Prey" and the aforementioned ode to Mr. Hawking.
--Mark Sanderlin [August 27, 2008]
