Librarians With Hickeys - How To Make Friends By Telephone
BIG STIR RECORDS is proud to announce the November 8 CD and Streaming release of the third album from Akron, Ohio's LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE. Featuring 12 tracks of sparkling, melodic guitar pop (including the hit indie singles “Hello Operator” and “No More Goodbyes”), the album is a grand leap forward for a band already acclaimed for the jangling textures and instantly memorable melodies of their first two albums (and an unbroken string of hit indie singles).
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS have come a long way in a short time, establishing themselves as a vital force on the modern power pop and jangle rock landscape. It was just 2020 when the debut album LONG OVERDUE saw the band, anchored by the twin-guitar sound of Mike Crooker and Ray Carmen (whose inviting tenor completes the unmistakable LWH sound) burst onto the scene, before the 2022 breakthrough HANDCLAPS & TAMBOURINES cemented their reputation as indie pop mainstays. Those records provided a seemingly endless string of singles with true staying power on global radio – irresistible earworms like “That Time Is Now”, “I Can't Stop Thinking About You”, “Ghost Singer” and “Can't Wait 'Till Summer” – whose titles alone suggest the power pop classics of yore. All of the tunes delivered on that promise: these were breezy, instantly gripping A-sides in the time-honored mold, eminently deserving of the many spins and chart placements on terrestrial and online rock radio they received. And in 2024, their latest, the recent “Hello Operator” and the freshly-released “No More Goodbyes”, have proven to be their best and most widely celebrated tracks yet.
It would be remarkable enough if Librarians With Hickeys were simply consistently delivering radio-ready pop gems, but the new tracks hint at – and the album immediately confirms – a new focus and depth without any sacrifice of the band's keen melodic instincts and accessible, hook-driven sound. The songs on HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE stand alone as always, but there's a palpable sea change that comes along with the band's move from the four-piece lineup that established them on the Akron live scene to the core duo of Carmen and Crooker, who play and sing almost everything on the new record, retaining and even expanding the full-band sound. The resulting focus on the band's signature Rickenbacker-and-Strat interplay drives “Hello Operator” to new heights, and across the album, it frames the sharpest set of melodies and lyrics the Librarians have yet delivered. And beyond being a stack of tunes which could all be singles on their own merits – which it is! – the album, from its title to the thematic concerns that surface throughout the lyrics to its songs, makes a deeper statement as a singular work this time out.
“When we began writing songs for their follow-up to Handclaps & Tambourines, we didn’t intend on writing a concept album about telecommunications. And HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE isn’t a concept album by any means (thank heavens)!” says Crooker. “But it does comment on how people struggle to communicate with each other. From the opening track, 'Hello Operator' – based on a true story about Ray calling the operator every day when he was four years old just because he liked talking to her – to the last track, 'Everything Will Be All Right' – an epic reminder to put your phone down at night – we wanted to make sure the record has all the hooks, melodies and harmonies you’ve come to expect from us, while incorporating some overarching nods to that theme of the challenges of connection in the modern world... even though we use some vintage imagery to express it.” Antique telecommunications loom large on those tracks, in the cleverly retro cover art, and on “Ship To Shore”, with wistful and yearning sea shanty vibe, Smiths-like guitar figures, and lyrics about trying to communicate with a loved one overseas, who may – or may not – be waiting for them when they get home.
The struggle to be understood is the cornerstone for “Have You Heard,” a punchy up-tempo call to arms, a lower-case anthem to finding a deeper connection in the quieter moments “‘tween the dream and the seen, the mystery and what it means.” The refrain “Can you hear me now?” sums up many of the album's central questions, but it wouldn't do to frame HTMFBT as a one note affair. It's got tunes about everything from trying to get the attention of someone you’re crushing on, being true to yourself even (or especially) when it pisses people off, throwing people out of your house, and drowning your sorrows after a break up and even a nod to classic cinema espionage on the Attractions-inspired “Spying By The Numbers”. For all topics they touch on, though, Librarians With Hickeys have few peers in crafting classy, classic songs of love and longing in the '60s pop vein: “Brand New Boyfriend”, “You Don't Know Me” and “Out Of Your Hair” all play like lost classics from the AM era, and ably amplify the heartfelt joy in the creation of music that suffuses the album from start to finish.
While the Librarians’ power pop sound will always be the main attraction, they have always liked taking musical detours – consider the garage rock of “Leave Me Alone” from Long Overdue, or the pastoral Cambridge folk of “The Last Days Of Summer” from Handclaps. HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS is no exception, as the band experiments with Celtic sounds on the aforementioned “Ship To Shore” (which could pass for the theme to a BBC drama), the country vibe of “What Happened To My Heart” (by all means bring your own beer, but for the love of God leave the line dancing at home) and the taut, urgent postpunk of “Mirror”. The latter isn't the exception it might seem, though. More than ever, LWH is just as informed by the jangling atmospherics of '80s college rock titans like The Church and the Bunnymen as The Beatles and The Byrds.
In fact, there's a strong argument that the band's magic lies in their ability to seamlessly blend the sounds of those eras (and indeed the whole of pop rock history) and move them into the modern indie world as if it's all happening at once. And in a sense, it is: HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS BY TELEPHONE is simply crammed with jangly pop goodness that's genuinely deserving of the overused superlative “timeless”. LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS needn't be concerned with coming through loud and clear... for the past four years, fans worldwide have been listening intently, and since the bow of their first new single this year, they've been waiting patiently for the band's next full-length communiqué. It has finally arrived. Can you hear them now?
