"Hope Was charts the difficult territory of love lost between hope and despair, somehow crafting an album of breathtakingbeauty from the soul-crushing horror of a relationship fallingapart before your eyes. Michael Plaster sings his incredibly honest, vulnerable lyrics in a voice so overcome with conflicting emotions -- loss, fear, regret, anger, but above all, love -- that you want to weep, and not stop until he and his lover are reunited. This two-disc, two-hour set is highly recommended for anyone who just couldn't bear to let a relationship go, no matter how painful it was to hang on; for anyone who has learned thehard way that when all hope is gone, the only thing that's left is hope. "

Dave Aftandilian, INK 19