Courtesy of Ally Newbold Photography

Hop Along‰’s 2012 debut album, Get Disowned is a collage of gorgeous vignettes that trace heartbreak, joy, and wide-eyed curiosity as they transcend childhood and adult life. Frances Quinlan‰’s lyrical stories hit everything from a dark eyed boy that got away in fifth grade to the ‰who gets what‰’ post-breakup negotiations, from a child that wishes for their parents‰’ divorce, to an adult that leaves home for the grass-is-always-greener oasis of freedom in a new city. Throw in the band‰’s formula of larger than life, rough around the edges chord changes, occasional twisted nursery rhyme melodies, and Quinlan‰’s penchant for mustering every ounce of emotional energy from her lungs, and you have an album that will live well beyond its humble roots.

Still, the band waits until the album‰’s close to deliver the album‰’s thesis. “Get Disowned‰” is the best song to share the album‰’s title, the only composition that manages to fit all of the band‰’s thematic content into a mere three minutes. Quinlan sings of beloved family members that have since disappeared into significant others. She later ponders the stability that a home grants a family, year after year. Sonically, the band plays with their sing-song melodic phrases very sporadically following verses.

Finally, Quinlan laments, “Greater than my love gone out the door is the love that I‰’ve ignored.‰” We‰’re reminded that Elvis never gave encores, perhaps a veiled foreshadowing of the band taking the song and album to its peak, unable to be followed up.

Everything quiets and Quinlan takes over the silence, whispering “Meteor, meteor, make me young.‰” The power in that wish to return to a simpler time, leaving behind messy feelings and darkened corners of aging seems to overtake Quinlan until she takes her acrobatic vocal performance to its height, belting the refrain over and over. Finally, everyone seems out of energy and we return to the quiet moments that the segment began at. The song and album end, giving the listener and singer a moment to catch their breath after the sheer force poured over them.