Every once in a while an album comes along that gives you the confidence to withstand any adversity the world throws your way. Whether its being unemployed, ending a relationship, or losing a loved one this album has the power to make you feel better, and The Hours’ newest album, It’s Not How You Start It’s How You Finish does just that with songs like “Narcissus Road,” “Big Black Hole,” and the tour de force anthem that provided the soundtrack to Nike’s “Human Chain” commercial, “Ali In The Jungle.” What makes this song so gut-wretchedly powerful is the message being driven into your psyche as the piano loop and pulsating snare drum attack all your other senses. “Everybody gets knocked down/How quick are you gonna get up!” is the mantra that gets you fired up like Popeye after eating spinach, and it was this commanding song that opened the show at New York City’s Mercury Lounge in late March. Just off the heels of SXSW, singer Antony Genn and keyboardist Martin Slattery looked in top gear as they wowed the New York crowd on their inaugural American tour. 
Other songs from It’s Not How You Start It’s How You Finish that made the Mercury Lounge set list were “Back When You Were Good,” another beautiful production with lyrics potent enough to attract the most cynical of listeners, “Icarus,” a song that uses the story of Icarus as a metaphor for people who give into temptation, and “See The Light,” another inspiring song that turns your focus towards the light which exists in all of us. If you are down and out about the way your life is going, then do yourself a favor and pick up It’s Not How You Start It’s How You Finish by The Hours and get lifted. It will be the soundtrack to your victory.
The Hours got their start when singer-songwriter-guitarist Antony Genn (whose BritPop credentials include stints with Pulp and Elastica), and multi-instrumentalist Martin Slattery (whose resume includes playing with Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape) formed The Mescaleros with then-former Clash-frontman Joe Strummer in 1999. The Mescaleros performed their first gig in Genn’s hometown of Sheffield in June 1999 and Antony (who’d been all of 8 when London Calling first hit the record store racks) co-wrote and co-produced Rock Art and the X Ray Style, the highly-acclaimed album that marked Strummer’s long-awaited return to music.
These photos were taken of The Hours at The Mercury Lounge in New York City
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