When Matt Scottoline announced a new Hurry record, he apparently wondered whether the world really needed another Hurry album. That feels like a very Matt Scottoline thing to worry about. The good news is that Zoned Out, the band’s sixth full-length and fourth for Lame-O Records, answers the question within the first minute: yes, absolutely.
I’ve loved Hurry ever since I first heard When I’m With You from their 2016 Guided Meditation LP, and what strikes me here is how the band sounds both unmistakably familiar and noticeably energized. The laid-back, bittersweet power pop is still there, but the guitars hit a little harder, the grooves have more swagger, and Scottoline sounds in full control. All Sunk In opens the record in classic Hurry fashion with a sweet vocal melody sung over a chugging power chords that drive the song, winning you over long before the rest of the instruments kick in after 40 seconds.
Teenage Fanclub remains the obvious north star, and Moving After You might be the clearest example yet. Having Gerard Love guest on the track feels like a power-pop fan fiction that somehow became real. The voices blend beautifully, and if you’re a Teenage Fanclub devotee, this song is basically catnip.
What makes Zoned Out special is the tension running through it. Scottoline writes about impending fatherhood, writer’s block, online dating awkwardness, and the terrifying realization that adult life eventually catches up with everyone. Yet he packages those anxieties in melodies so warm and inviting that you find yourself humming along to existential dread.
For a band called Hurry, they’ve always taken their time getting here. On Zoned Out, they are moving forward with purpose. It is out now on Lame-O Records.