Album Review: ‘Pre-Existing Conditions’ by Tim Hause

Okay, let’s get this part out of the way. Philadelphia singer-songwriter Tim Hause is Dave Hause’s younger brother. Tim has been playing with Dave since 2013’s Devour and has performed on all of his brother’s records since.

Tim’s sophomore album Pre-Existing Conditions is excellent. The record opens with three doo-wop inspired pop rock numbers in “Here In The Bluelight,” “Make It Take It,” and “No Call No Show” that also remind me of Masked Intruder (in fact, Tim sounds a lot like Intruder Blue). Next is the most Dave Hause sounding song on the album “Tyrannosaurus Rx.” After The Replacements called it a day, and Tommy Stinson started Bash & Pop, he was criticized for sounding too much like Paul Westerberg and The Replacements. He responded by saying that of course Westerberg’s songs and songwriting inspired and influenced his own because he literally grew up playing bass with him in The Replacements. I thought of that story while listening to Pre-Existing Conditions and especially “Tyrannosaurus Rx.”

This album plays with various styles and genres including Americana, Heartland rock, pop rock, indie rock, and the aforementioned doo-wop while at the same time sounding like a cohesive unit. Case in point, “Summerkiss” is an excellent, soaring ballad while “Hole In The Fence” is a catchy pop rock song reminiscent of the likes of fellow Philadelphia natives The Hooters, “Who Let The Dog Out” is a dark and haunting ballad with a crescendo ending, and “A Wake” is the most overtly Americana song on the album. While these songs are all stylistically distinct, they all sound like Tim Hause. And that is where this album truly succeeds in its melding of disparate styles and genres that still sound like they are part of the same whole. And I haven’t even mentioned the album’s outstanding closing track “Catacomb (Only In Dreams).”

Pre-Existing Conditions is easily one of my favorite albums of the year and will undoubtedly end up near the top of my year-end list. Admittedly, I didn’t connect with Tim Hause’s 2023 debut TIM so I’m going to have to go back and give it another go.