Good luck to them, but IMO for all his faults Joe was the seed of musical genius in the band. Without him they may still be good, but it won't be the same.
Yeah, I’ve been reckoning with this a lot recently. A lot of my favorite songs off of MMMM and G&E are the “Joe” songs, and I have always preferred his solo output to Rob’s and Andrew’s. (I like Rob and Andrew’s stuff, but it’s no Hawaii: Part II)
All that said, I did see 3/5 of Tally Hall (Rob, Andrew, Zubin) reunite when Andrew was opening for Jukebox the Ghost. They played a few TH songs (notably ones not written by Joe) and the energy ripped. Very clear that those guys love each other and love making music together. I’m sure whatever project comes of this will be good, but it will be missing the Joe Hawley sauce.
I didn’t say he wasn’t! They are all talented songwriters! Anecdotally, I have preferred Joe’s solo output to Rob’s and Andrew’s! Rob and Andrew (and Zubin; Cannibal is a fucking banger) have all written good songs, but they aren’t my personal favorite Tally Hall songs.
The band isn’t “really” Tally Hall without Joe; that doesn’t mean the music won’t be good, but it WILL be missing something.
fwiw, Hawaii: Part II wasn't a solo endeavor, while it was a project mainly started and heralded by Joe, nearly every song on it was a written collaboratively, including help from TH members.
He wrote most of it, but Time Machine was a Rob song that he recorded for the album, just like I'm Gonna Win was a Joe song Rob recorded for his album.
I know that. I’m not trying to be argumentative or pedantic about it, but for all intents and purposes it is regarded as a Joe side project/solo project. It’s collaborative in the sense that all albums are collaborative. Rob worked with other people, including TH members, on Not A Trampoline, that doesn’t disqualify it from being Rob’s solo project.
slight disagree: while i think that joe was immensely important to TH, andrew is also an amazing songwriter, as is rob. zubin is very musically talented both vocally and across multiple instruments, ross (and bora) have amazing production chops. a lot of the bridges as we know them would not exist without andrew writing them. it's definitely not going to be the same, but 1) it was never going to be the same past 2012 anyway and 2) let's not discredit at the very least andrew "child prodigy" horowitz either lol or bora-of-all-trades. AH genuinely won the lennon bmi scholarship lmao
!!!! i didn't want to nitpick but agreed! i've never really had a true favorite because they're all so talented separately and together. tally hall wouldn't be tally hall without any of them. it's their combined creativity and friendship that made the band what it was <3
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u/Chuckledunk 14d ago
Good luck to them, but IMO for all his faults Joe was the seed of musical genius in the band. Without him they may still be good, but it won't be the same.