Hospital

The soft-rock renaissance of a couple of years ago never really coalesced into anything resembling a revolution. It turns out that there weren't that many closet Bread fans after all. Even sensitive guys Sebadoh, who along with The Scud Mountain Boys were responsible for initiating this trend, have returned to rocking on their latest CD.

Stylized mushiness hasn't gone completely out of style, however, if Hospital's new disc, 16 Endings, is any indication. Unabashedly declaring the influences of such quintessential '70s fare as The Bee Gees when they started out nearly three years ago, the Westfield/Northampton fivesome has pushed its sound in a more straightforward pop-rock direction on its latest album. Fueled by the romantic musings of main songwriter Mark Schwaber, the music remains as soft as ever in spirit.

Recorded primarily at The Slaughterhouse with Mark Alan Miller, with additional tracks the product of some home recording sessions, 16 Endings captures Hospital's split identity, merging its fondness for classic pop arrangements with the band's more nuanced, quiet side. As a result, the quintet has come to resemble more of a traditional indie-rock band, though Schwaber is wary of such labels. "I've never had any interest in becoming an indie-rock band," he explained in a recent telephone interview. "I've always appreciated that sound from a distance, but our interest is in becoming a big pop band. And I think we've succeeded with this record. Mark [Miller] did a great job at bringing that out and knowing exactly what we wanted.

"There wasn't any sort of cohesive decision to change the sound of the band. But it evolved out of playing different venues and getting tired of being drowned out."

The current version of "You Only Haunt Me," one of the standout tracks on 16 Endings, developed out of that frustration. "I can remember being at Club Metro, when they still had bands, and using the distortion peddle for the first time. It was more to hear myself over the dance music coming through the walls."

Indeed, it wasn't all that difficult for Hospital -- which also includes singer-guitarist Rusty Russell, cellist Abby Barlow, drummer J.J. O'Connell and bassist Paul Kolhanski -- to get lost in the din in those days. The band's songs were as finespun and fragile as the emotions they sought to express, plumbing quietude to startlingly gorgeous effect. The sentimental stylings of soft-rock proved to be the ideal setting for Schwaber's songs, which, like those of fellow sad-boy singer-songwriters Lou Barlow and Elliott Smith, grope for a new way to express vulnerability and desire.

Schwaber doesn't mind the comparisons. "It's the most flattering thing anyone could ever say," he said of the reference to Smith. It's hard not to note the similarities: the extreme sensitivity, scrupulous self-awareness and plush melodies. Though Schwaber is less oblique when it comes to specific references to relationships.

"A lot of them become like period pieces," he said, when asked whether he sometimes cringed at the nakedness of his own songs. "They lose their feel of significance. Some I just like as pop songs. It's like taking a history class. You try not to get back to that place. A lot of the newer songs concern self-doubt coming from me as opposed to the relationship itself."

Whereas the last Hospital album was essentially a showcase for Schwaber's songs -- with perhaps the exception of Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers, no local tunesmith is more skilled a pop craftsman -- 16 Endings is a much more integrated effort. Schwaber shares the writing duties with Russell, whose affable tunes provide a counterpoint to the downcast, introspective mood mined by Schwaber. The band has increasingly begun to gel as an artistic unit since the last album, Schwaber said.

"We've grown up over the last year," he said. "We just got to know these songs better, and we know each other better. It's easier as a writer bringing in a batch of songs, knowing what each person is going to add to them."

The result is a more refined and stylistically wide-ranging album, encompassing several lo-fi tracks which come closest to the sound set out on the debut, a few urgent rockers and a handful of luminous pop gems. And fans who have followed the band from the beginning will be happy to note the inclusion of "You Only Haunt Me," the by turns somnambulant and turbulent seven-minute track which has been a part of the band's live set for over two years.

And while the title of the album would seem significant to a band with such a propensity toward the melancholic, Schwaber notes that the name is actually a joke. "J.J. was talking on the phone to someone about what to call the album, and at the same time we were still arguing about what song we should make last. Finally, he said that we're so morbid that any song could be last, so we decided to call it 16 Endings."

-- Michael Strohl

-- Michael Strohl