Greg Hoy & the Boys “Everybody Wants To Be Somebody”

Rock music’s brightest new artists have never been quite as hard to categorize by subgenre as they are right now, and that’s certainly true when analyzing the new single from Greg Hoy & the Boys, “Everybody Wants To Be Somebody.” A product of alternative rock’s cutting lyrical prism but untethered to most any of the style’s modern efficiencies, this latest release from singer/songwriter Greg Hoy is undisputedly rock n’ roll, but beyond that, it lives in the space between varnished pop and unyielding punk angst. It’s made a fan out of me for sure, and my gut tells me it just might you as well.

There’s not a lot of fight in the attack that we find at the beginning of “Everybody Wants To Be Somebody,” but this doesn’t stop the track from evolving into a stadium-rocker in only a few minutes’ time. The rhythm, as broken and non-stoic as it is, is the catalyst for pretty much every exciting burst of relief in the otherwise tense environment created by the guitar. With the assistance of Hoy’s vocal, it grows the initial mood into a monolith and drags anything within earshot of its beats asunder into a world once ruled by the likes of real rockers now considered veterans of the game.

The singing is at the center of the mix here, but it doesn’t demand a division in our attention between its lyrics and the swaggering force of the backing band. Greg Hoy has become a lot more balanced in his approach to harmonies than he was the last time we caught up with him, and though this is as far away from a bubblegum pop song as it gets, there’s a fluidity to the music in “Everybody Wants To Be Somebody” that he can utilize heavily in future releases. Good artists grow up fast, but this guy is, in my view, straight-up breaking the mold for his scene.

It would be really interesting to hear an acoustic version of “Everybody Wants To Be Somebody” sometime, mostly so that the general public could appreciate the blueprint of the beats here as much as they do the distorted decadence of the guitar parts. This band doesn’t need a lot of sonic buffering to sound like a devastatingly talented group of players, and while this isn’t the most barebones track in their collection of releases, it’s devoid of any useless filler. Hoy does not need such trite nonsense in his work, and that’s made more than clear to us in this song.

There aren’t many rock singers that are bringing the kind of presence that Greg Hoy is to this latest release bearing his band’s moniker. His attitude, execution, and overall demeanor are as important to the music as any of the riffs, grooves, and harmonies are, and in this way, he reminds me a lot of the rock forerunners who paved the road for his journey decades ago. I’ll be looking out for more of his music as the year goes on, and based on the reception this single is getting, I’ll be joined by numerous listeners around the country in doing so.

Mindy McCall