Hours strengthens most of the Funeral for a Friend sound, the one they had so much success with on the 2003 debut, Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation. The Welsh combo still doesn't do anything that different from its peers, adhering to the post-hardcore/emo formula of self-righteous vocals, hooky dynamics, impassioned screaming, and underpinnings of time spent listening to Deftones and Get Up Kids records. But Hours gives the kids what they want right out of the gate, and has flashes of brilliance in its more upbeat material. "Who was it that said that great things come to great men?" Matt Davies asks at the outset of "All the Rage." "Well that fucker lied to us/There's nothing here but a wasteland." The sentiment recasts the teenage wasteland of yore, replacing hope for redemption with the blank stare of apathy. "How many times can I say I'm sorry and really mean it?" Musically it's a melodic hardcore rager, full of flinty guitar runs and anxious hitches in the percussion. It sounds similar to what listeners have heard before, but runs deeper than most.
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