Recorded at Presto! in Lincoln, NE by A.J. Mogis

With the stripped down simplicity of a guitar and a voice, Jake Bellows, Neva Dinova’s leader, opens the album with "Hat O'er Eyes" and sets the mood: "He wears his hat o'er his eyes / And he's trying to keep it on / Says he's sick of living his life / And he's tired of being alone."

From those first words to "I've Got A Feeling's" final barroom, sing-a-long power-chorus of "The world's a shitty place / I can't wait to die,” Neva Dinova's The Hate Yourself Change guides you through an inspiringly despondent menagerie of musical mastery. Picture the better parts of Coldplay, Mazzy Star, The Cure and maybe even Johnny Cash, mixed with a mid-western innocence and the type of melancholy that makes you tap your feet and hum along. Jake has deftly managed to write an album that is at once filled with lyrics of sorrow and despair as it is packed with musical interludes of hope and exhilaration. The fact is, Jake Bellows isn't a depressing guy, he just plays one on this record — and, fortunately for us, he does it exceptionally well.

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