Mr Heart – The Unspeakable Mr Heart
CD/DL/LP
Out October 29th
Mr Heart have built up a good reputation for themselves in their home city of Manchester, so much so in fact that one of that cities most famous sons, MES himself, has had them support The Fall on several occasions. They’re about to release their debut album now though & judging by Adrian Bloxham’s review it’d appear Mr. Heart will soon be stepping out of The Fall’s shadow.
Mr Heart are from Salford. They are three piece female band. Their debut album is called The Unspeakable Mr Heart. That is about as far as the sensible facts and words go for this reviewer. This album is a smorgasbord of influences and sound that give you something very British, very relevant and very right now this second.
Let me elaborate.
‘Boredom’s Device’ kicks off the record, quite literally kicks in with its grunge punk full on intro, but that falls away into discordant guitar and offbeat drumming to open the sound up. The vocals are very strong and aggressive. The song goes from loud to quiet and back again, the loud parts dissolving into very quiet guitar. It is a sound taken for granted now, but Mr Heart manage to make it fresh and relevant. They are saying that Boredom will kill us, destroy us and make us weak. ‘Sexy Husby’ starts again with massive guitar riffs that slow and quieten down to dubby drums and a sexy bass line. The voice is distorted and strange. The guitars keep dropping onto the song then fading away to a low grumbling bass and tribal drums. The vocal stays unsettling and restrained. The last fade out has ‘This is my time’ sung over and over. ‘The Hide’ has a Germanic accent singing and coupled with the understated bass line and slow bouncing drums it brings to life the ghost of the Velvet Underground and Nico. A sad slow feeling leading into the grunge heavy punk rock guitars that make the vocals yelp. The contrast between the volume and quiet has a quite wonderful contrast here.
‘Mr Heart’ is post punk and spiky sounding. It starts with a breathy vocal which changes to a childlike voice for the refrain, to be joined by another childlike voice. Which is swallowed by noise. The sound here comes from the echo of the Throwing Muses and their ilk. ‘Twisted Lamp’ is under two minutes long but they have thrown everything into it, a frantic start and a jazzy mid section with the vocals way back in the mix. There’s almost too much going on in this short slap in the face. ‘Amber’ has the Nicoesque voice and arty strumming, it’s atmospheric and eerie. The music throbs and the cymbals give it tension. It rises to a guitar drenched finale and then stops.
‘Riot Song’ has sirens and voices underneath a guitar strum. It’s quiet to start like the crowds building up. ‘Half the city crumbles’ a very British sound and feel. They talk about poor people ‘on the poverty line’ nicking clothes, why did they take crap from Primark and tellies, why didn’t they take something really great. It’s only about the third or fourth song I’ve heard directly about the riots so Mr Heart are standing next to the King Blues and Plan B in actually talking about it, they use a very dry humour to make you think about it, ‘certainly didn’t look like a fight for a cause’ and it ended in a waste that wasn’t worth ‘losing your liberty for’. The next track ‘Devolution’ has great punk guitar with a bouncing bass, it sounds pained and desperate, hard and fast until it slows to still sound as hard but looser and easier. ‘Lynchpin has another trademark Mr Heart battering intro that cuts to a steady bass and drum hip wiggling groove, the loudness that interrupts briefly and ends the song doesn’t disturb the funky beat that makes you want to dance around the room.
‘Dynamo’ sounds like Mr Heart have listened to PJ Harvey at her most caustic, the voice talking, singing quietly and then shouting, it sounds strained and taught as if the song will snap like an old rubber band, ‘if everybody wants me why do I feel so alone’, the song has a nasty feel to it. ‘Stones’ fades from the huge intro into a gentle off key guitar strum led song that sounds looped. The drumming has a tribal feel which kicks into a gloriously muddy riff. The vocals go all distorted and post punk which then dissolve into a funky bassline and rimshot drumming, ‘I don’t wanna run’ it melts down to a swirling creepy noise that creeps up on you, stealing your breath until the distortion hits again. This song is the most schizophrenic on the album and sounds far longer than it’s three minutes. ‘Vacuum Head’ grows from a small, quiet guitar noise. The voice again sounds Germanic and the music a gentle looped jam, imposing and hypnotic. It builds up without you realising because the vocal demands your attention you lose focus of the music growing behind it. The drums get louder and the odd little noises rise up until it properly explodes into a slow, hard as nails riff that makes you move and smile. It ends with a hiss of static and a whine of feedback.
But that’s not all, Mr Heart have given us two remixes, ‘The Hide’ Kin Mix is menacing in the extreme, slow and very bass heavy. The looped percussion and voice make this very good. ‘Vacuum Head’ AAAK Mix has another huge bass sound with massive drums which is agin slow and steady, it’s not quite as overpowering as the Kin Mix, it opens the song out and segues into an enormous guitar and drum driven ending, fantastic.
Mr Heart have created a sound for now. They use volume as a tool, the sections of quiet balance the noise and as an established formula for sound they have taken it away from boring copyists and transformed it into a fresh idea. This album has too much to describe, I’ve given it my best but it’s really up to you now to listen to it. They are astounding in their vision, it’s one to listen to on your phone as you walk the city streets under a drab, battleship grey winter sky.
Mr Heart have a website which you can find here & at which you can buy their album. The band are also on Facebook & Twitter of course.
All words by Adrian Bloxham. More of Adrian’s writing on Louder Than War can be found here.
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