Lately, I’ve been listening to From Hogsmeade With Love, The Chocolate Frogs‘ debut full-length album. The Chocolate Frogs consist of Matty and Mike, and they have been wrocking out since right around Prophecy, in August of 2007. I had the pleasure of meeting Matty at LeakyCon, and this is my attempt at putting into words how I feel about the album.

From Hogsmeade With Love starts with a whimsical instrumental track that immediately brings to mind fantasy for me. When I say instrumental, of course I mean without vocals, but this song also encompasses an impressive variety of instruments – trombone, saxophone, guitar, flute, possibly a triangle, and probably a few others that I’m missing. It’s far from cacophonous, though, and flows seamlessly into ‘My Pumpkin Juice Love’, an upbeat ballad with some amazingly descriptive imagery: “They slide down to an armchair/Crookshanks, I need some room here” “She sits down in his lap then/Flicks her wand like a ribbon/She conjures snow above them/And kisses his lips once again”.

The Chocolate Frogs add some familiar tunes with their own twist to the tracklist as well: ‘A Merry Wizard Christmas’ and ‘Anyone Else But You’. Personally, I’m a sucker for any wizard rock Christmas song, even if I don’t like the original, and it is July. Any Juno fans out there will appreciate Ron and Hermione’s perspective in ‘Anyone Else But You’, the movie’s credit song. Here Matty gets some vocal help from Mike, who is otherwise playing trombone, percussion, triangle, and dinner bells.

Also included are two songs about characters that don’t necessarily get the most attention – John Dawlish and Neville Longbottom. Dawlish’s song, ‘John Dawlish, Auror’, isn’t particularly complimentary or long-winded, but it’s nice to be reminded of him every once in a while. Neville’s song, on the other hand, celebrates our favorite moments with him, mixed in with a chorus that will echo through your head long after the song is over.

The high point of the album for me is ‘Summer Fires’, which combines singable doo-wop with the reality of Deathly Hallows: “And I know we’re risking life and limb/But we’ll be fine/And the summer’s on fire/And the summer’s on fire/And I know everything has changed/Except for you and you and me”. The best part of the song is that it makes me think of my favorite part of Deathly Hallows – the optimism of the trio before they set out on their hunt for the horcruxes; when it still felt like it was going to be just another one of their adventures.

From Hogsmeade With Love is available for purchase on iTunes or their MySpace. The Chocolate Frogs are also playing a show at the end of this month with The Nifflers, The Hufflepunks, and The Ravenclaw Revolution in St. Catherines, Canada.