Hard to Imagine the Neighbourhood Ever Changing

Hard To Imagine The Neighbourhood Ever Changing is a deluxe compilation that includes tracks from the 2017 and 2018 EPs Hard, To Imagine and Ever Changing, as well as most of the 2018 album The Neighbourhood. So, it really serves as a more comprehensive statement about where the band were circa 2018 than their self-titled album does.
The Neighbourhood began as a brooding outfit blending alt-pop and rock influences with dashes of R&B and hip-hop production. By their second album, 2015’s Wiped Out!, the band had begun to sand down a good portion of their rougher rock edges in favour of a smoother, more pop-leaning approach, though The Neighbourhood were still nobody’s idea of a good-time party group. And the tracks collected on Hard To Imagine The Neighbourhood Ever Changing find the members doubling down on some elements of their sound while largely leaving others in the rearview mirror.
The hip-hop side of things, which was really only a small part of the band’s musical makeup before, comes fully into focus on a number of tracks here. Rappers Denzel Curry, Nipsey Hussle, Ghostface Killah and IDK make guest appearances on “Kill Us All”, “Livin’ in a Dream”, “Beat Take 1” and “Beautiful Oblivion”, respectively. The guitar-centric rock pieces of The Neighbourhood’s previous musical jigsaw puzzle have pretty much receded into the background. At the same time, the pop flavours that had been pumped up last time around are even more in the forefront than they were on Wiped Out!, offering a hint at what the band would have in store on their next full-length release, 2020’s intensely pop-savvy Chip Chrome & The Mono-Tones.
Singer Jesse Rutherford is still more than capable of conveying an internal ocean of discontent whenever the spirit moves him on these tracks, and the overall mood remains more sad than sunny. But just as The Neighbourhood has begun letting in more light in the musical sense, the post-goth gloominess of their debut has lifted considerably by this point.