Unlike other magazines that cater to the over 30 crowd (Magnet, Rolling Stone), Harp relies on slick design to sell copies. Pictures overlap type, sidebars pop up in unexpected places, and colors clash on almost every page. That’s not to say the publishers of the Silver Spring, Maryland based monthly don’t put an emphasis on content. With 154 pages to work with, there’s plenty of room for substance. The November issue, for example, crams in a truckload of interviews, reviews, and features.
The front of the book, “Reverb,” is divided into three tags: “Shortcuts,” “News&Noteworthy,” and “Inside Tracks.” While the first two include the usual music mag fare of mini-profiles and industry news, “Inside Track” provides an in-depth look at new releases that back up Harp’s cover slogan, “Music Matters.” For this issue, alt-country singer Alison Moorer is featured. There’s examples of song titles, an action shot of Moorer recording, and a quick interview.
Another section, “Artifacts,” goes beyond music into film and culture just before the features kick in with a profile of echo-rockers Band of Horses. But this is brief. The focus, after all, is on music.
Sticking with an emphasis on design, the opening spread of each article is bold, but too flashy. The intro to a piece on rising stars Okkervil River has a clean-washed-out picture that counters a hed and subhed that the designer pushes to the far reaches of the page.
Sure, the graphics are splashy, but the depth of each piece and concentration on music is impressive. The profile on cover subject Devendra Banhart could have easily strayed into a meditation on the Los Angelino’s gender-bend style of dress. Instead, writer A.D. Amorosi delves into the soft, psychedelic tendencies of Banhart’s new album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. ” . . . The instrumentation he’s used on Smokey is some delicious hybrid,” Amorosi writes.
Most features in the magazine are profiles, but there’s a piece on the emergence of “real” funk and soul. Though flagged on the cover as the “Amy Winehouse Effect,” the article threads in lesser-known acts like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.
Harp takes a moment for a little nostalgia with “Bastards of Young,” a collection of excerpts from a recently published oral history of the Replacements. The interviews include Big Star’s Alex Chilton and Steve Albini, but the real star here is an opening spread photo pulled from the band’s 80’s heyday. Paul Westerberg used to look a lot like Jim from The Office.
The back of the book is filled with reviews. There’s no rating system, but the lead review, Bruce Springsteen’s Magic, is glowing. The back page features an artist and how a certain album changed his/her life. Unfortunately, this time it’s Ben Lee discussing Nirvana’s Nervermind. It’s thoughtful, but didn’t that record change the life of every rocker between the ages of 20 and 30?
Overall, Harp delivers enough meat and potatoes to satisfy a music fan’s appetite.
-Jordan Edwards
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