Hopewell: Good Good Desperation

There aren’t two finer bands representing the rich rock history of New York’s Hudson Valley quite like Hopewell and Mercury Rev. And when Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue invited the Dutchess County psych rockers to create a 30-minute piece of improvised space magic for his radio show on the Woodstock-based alt-rock station WDST-FM, that little jam session set the tone for Hopewell’s finest and most out-there album to date. Hopewell surely hopes you consider its sixth release, Good Good Desperation, to be its psychedelic masterstroke on par with Pink Floyd’s Meddle and Can’s Tago Mago. However, these dudes are gonna have to find a better weed dealer to achieve anything on par with “Echoes”, as even the most mind-exploding moments here aren’t as inherently bugged out as they could be with a little more expansion of the senses. Here’s hoping Hopewell gets there for lucky number seven.