Hope and Despair isn’t so much a record, as a great effort at dragging you into another world. Since completing 1995’s ‘Coffee Table Song’, Edwyn Collins fulfilled their contract with Blue Note Records and where under no obligation to release another album. Now signed to Edwyn Collins’s Blue Note Records, the title track from second album “Hope and Despair” leads Edwyn Collins’s back-to-school campaign. Hope and Despair constantly brilliant.
Testing Time one is one of the better boring ones. Let Me Put My Arms Around You hits the heart. Wide Eyed Child in Me is a pleasing, and full of overall coherence that goes beyond other creations. Ghost of a Chance - My least favorite song on this album. Hope and Despair is a very catchy tune. I listened to the opening track 50 Shades of Blue and liked it a lot. A unique and uplifting song. Pushing It to the Back of My Mind is a nice, innocuous song, and much better than anything Edwyn Collins released so far. As always, Edwyn Collins’s lyrics are worth listening to again and again. Some of the arrangements found on Hope and Despair are surprisingly edgy. Wheels of Love is the funkiest number on the album. Beginning of the End is a marvelous sing-along. Measure of the Man actually sounds so joyous, that you can practically see a smile on Edwyn Collins’s face.
Hope and Despair CD
| Song Name | Time | ||
| Coffee Table Song.mp3 | 4:52 |  |
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| Testing Time.mp3 | 3:52 | |
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| Let Me Put My Arms Around You.mp3 | 4:07 | |
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| Wide Eyed Child in Me.mp3 | 2:51 | |
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| Ghost of a Chance.mp3 | 4:09 | |
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| Hope and Despair.mp3 | 3:22 | |
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| 50 Shades of Blue.mp3 | 3:55 | |
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| You’re Better Than You Know.mp3 | 4:13 | |
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| Pushing It to the Back of My Mind.mp3 | 3:48 | |
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| If Ever You’re Ready.mp3 | 4:21 | |
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| Darling, They Want It All.mp3 | 3:43 | |
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| Wheels of Love.mp3 | 4:55 | |
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| Beginning of the End.mp3 | 3:58 | |
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| Measure of the Man.mp3 | 3:39 | |
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