Track listing: Death by Water, Tuesday, With the Rhythm of a Catfight (Alternate), Burbank, California, The Killer on the Kennedy, Radio Hour, Excerpt for a Dead-On Girl, Chemistry, Missing from the Township, World in a Day, No Dissociation, Look for You, How Annandale Went Out, Easier This Way, Both Alone Tonight, Second Son (Alternate), Body

Last month we posted a review of The Radio Hour's single "With the Rhythm of a Catfight" from the forthcoming album Tim Hort. Well now the record's out and available on all major streaming services. Tim Hort is written and produced by the group's guitarist/songwriter of the same name. So while it's not technically an eponymous album given the band's name, it is named for the record's primary visionary.

an anthology of melodic, shoe-gaze rock tracks with a dark and sometimes psychedelic feel

Hort (the man) tours across the Midwest both with The Radio Hour and solo. And Tim Hort (the album) is essentially a compilation of 17 tracks from Hort's vast songwriting catalogue, selected "based on their common moody and introverted qualities."

Yes, the record's got a mood to it. Dark. Brooding. Self-reflective. Maybe a bit cynical. But the songs share an undeniable common emotional thread. There's a catharsis to be had in the sentiment of songs like "How Annandale Went Out" and "Missing from the Township." The record embodies a plaintive yearning akin to the strains of REM's "Texarkana"--not so much melodically or lyrically, as emotionally.

It could be dubbed shoe-gaze but that term's been associated with a slightly more spacey-alt subgenre in recent years. I'm not one to coin a new term for an entirely unique genre but The Radio Hour's got a bit of rock, americana, indie pop, all swirled together in a thick Midwestern roux.

Listen to Tim Hort and follow The Radio Hour on Spotify. And keep up with all things Tim Hort at timhort.com, dubbed by Blab! as "The Edgar Allen Poe of Independent Rock."