The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Big Hurt  |  CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Jazz  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
Best2012Vote-1000x50

The Exploding Hearts

Shattered | Dirtnap
By ANDREW MARCUS  |  January 2, 2007
3.5 3.5 Stars
070106_INSIDE_SHATTER
At its best, power pop is the only guitar-heavy music that defies gravity. Even Cheap Trick’s suicide vignette “Candy” doesn’t quite lower the spirit. Portland, Oregon’s Exploding Hearts, a band who lost three of its members in an August ’03 van accident, come straight out of that school of power pop. On their debut, the aptly titled Guitar Romantic, the band revived the genre’s wistful crunch without the skinny-tie preciousness of ’80s new wave or paint-by-numbers predictability. Instead, they modeled themselves as earnest ’70s-era punk rockers. Shattered, a collection of outtakes, rarities, and alternate takes, offers more of wiry-voiced Alex Cox winking at romantic overstatement (since the girl left him, he’s been “eating out of spray-painted garbage cans and sleeping at the bar”) and guitarist Terry Six, the only original member who survived the accident in 2003, squeezing out classic Mick Jones leads. The disc’s bonus video, of a performance two nights prior to the fatal accident, is a raucous reminder of the sheer power of the Exploding Hearts’ bratty, soulful music.
Related: On the Racks: June 6, Too dumb to quit, The Big Hurt: Sub-super supergroups, INXS excess, and unsaved unsavories, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music,  More more >
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/19 ]   The Addams Family  @ Shubert Theatre
[ 02/19 ]   American Lamb Jam Tour  @ Charles Hotel
[ 02/19 ]   Boston Ballet in "Simply Sublime"  @ Opera House
MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed