Search - Neva Dinova :: Hate Yourself Change

With the stripped down simplicity of a guitar and a voice, Jake Bellows, Neva Dinova?s leader, opens the album with "Hat O'er Eyes" and sets the mood: "He wears his hat o'er his eyes / And he's trying to keep it on / Says he's sick of living his life / And he's tired of being alone." From those first words to "I've Got A Feeling's" final barroom, sing-a-long power-chorus of "The world's a shitty place / I can't wait to die," Neva Dinova's The Hate Yourself Change guides you through an inspiringly despondent menagerie of musical mastery. Neva Dinova is a beloved Omaha band that first blipped on the nation?s radar when The Los Angeles Times called their eponymous debut one of the "Top 10 Releases of 2002." When they released a split-EP with Bright Eyes called "One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels" in the middle of 2004, we were reminded of just how special Neva Dinova and their lead-singer, Jake Bellows, are. Picture the better parts of Coldplay, Mazzy Star, The Cure and! maybe even Johnny Cash, mixed with a mid-western innocence and the type of melancholy that makes you tap your feet and hum along. Now wrap that up into eleven incredible songs and you begin to understand Neva Dinova's latest tour de force. Jake has deftly managed to write an album that is at once filled with lyrics of sorrow and despair as it is packed with musical interludes of hope and exhilaration. The Hate Yourself Change is destined to catapult Neva Dinova further into the realm of worldwide acknowledgment as it will make you wonder why the mindless synthetic rock of today's radio overshadows the honesty and integrity of bands like Neva Dinova. The fact is, Jake Bellows isn't a depressing guy, he just plays one on this record ? and, fortunately for us, he does it exceptionally well.