The English outfit Hood are a tough lot to sort. When they first started out they sounded like so many different artists, yet have found their own original identity as the miles stretch out behind them. Vocally they've evolved into something like Badly Drawn Boy fronting South, but they're hardly anything like that musically. Musically they take the form of someone like Scott Harren's mellow Savath & Savalas project, mixed with the glitchiness of The Notwist, but not entirely. There are the violins and horns to figure into to this eclectic conglomerate - see what I mean about being tough to categorize?

Hood is one of those bands that through their career, just seem to keep assimilating more and more influences into their sound. They're essentially a pack rat rock band if you will. Nowhere is this more apparent than the third track "Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive," the greatest song in Hood's career canon so far. "Any Hopeful Thoughts Arrive" is a near seven-minute behemoth in which Hood show that they have a strong candidate for one of the best songs of the year. It's too bad that nothing else on Outside Closer can even compare to it, even though songs like the Robert Wyatt sample filled "The Lost You" come awfully close. In the long run, Outside Closer isn't going to win Hood many new fans, but in all honesty I think a band like Hood prefer to be on the outside looking in. Inching ever closer.