Hearts in Pencil: Had to watch the days Go Cold
You know as a reviewer that you’re onto a loser when the best thing you can say about a record is that the cover art is kind of pretty. And certainly, Jade Richie’s multicoloured, abstract, noodly composition is a good deal more interesting than the tuneless indie-punk dross that accompanies it.
Hearts in Pencil is a bog-standard guitar/bass/drums trio that draws on uptempo REM, the wasp-in-the-speaker guitar style of Cake’s Greg Brown and the phoney sea-song imagery of The Coral, but remains uniquely, thoroughly, irredeemably rubbish at all times and in all modes. Producer/engineer George Shilling at least maintains a level of competence and professionalism throughout, but he seems to have little talent to work with. Principal offender is lead singer Lozzo, who doesn’t actually bother with any singing but instead yelps out various randomly adolescent thoughts about sex, death and the Hadron Particle Collider.
All four of the songs on this EP are terrible, but for the combination of irritating pseudery, Bert Weedon Play-In-A-Day acoustic guitar work and truly awful vocals, ‘A Place Called Pandemonium’ is as bad as they come. “Ghosts of the Conquistadors” is a bit more energetic and the electric guitarist knows his Blur but there’s still nothing worth hearing in four minutes of chugging by-the-numbers boredom. “Dusk is Drowned Forever” flirts with delayed guitar before settling on acoustic lameness from thereon in. The vocalist sounds royally pissed in both the American and English senses.
Hearts in Pencil don’t sound like they are trying a leg. You look for energy, wit and youth and all you get is a putrid canal of bland. Give this a wide berth.
By Colin MacKinnon
December 9th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
At last, proof that there IS such a thing as bad publicity.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Funny, I listened to the stuff on their myspace and although it certainly is pretty run of the mill indie-pap, I can think of several Oxford bands that sound fairly similar and are not really any better, yet receive buckets of praise. I wouldn’t pay for it out of my own hard cash but I’m not convinced it’s quite as bad as Colin perceives it.
Just a polite disagreement from someone with no connection to the band whatsoever.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Bi Tim eh? Your secret is out…
December 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Uh… damn. All it took was a simple type and my cover’s blown…
December 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I think i have to agree with “Bi Tim” here. There are loads of worse bands than this – these guys are alright, sort of like Tristan and the troubadours but not as good – but still, not as bad as the review makes out.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said that seeing as colin is probably reviewing my demo as I write this!
December 11th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Oh dear, another classic MacKinnon review
December 12th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Well, Bi Tim, the question is whether *Colin* has given praise to equivalent bands – maybe he thinks they should all be given a wide berth…?
December 13th, 2008 at 11:36 am
tb lol
December 13th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
i’m glad you like the art
January 26th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
ha ha Colin is fast becoming a bit of a legend in my eyes…hes f#cking hardcore yo!
(im sure if the Rivals had had a similar slatting i admittedly probably wouldnt find this so funny lol)
January 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I notice that Hearts in Pencil got a rather more positive review in this month’s Nightshift. That should cheer ‘em up a bit.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
i thought it was as rubbish as colin said tbh
totally agree with him
March 16th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I caught this lot at the Jericho Tavern a couple of weeks ago and thought they were pretty damned good! The singer “Lozzo” has character and presence, two things that are essential in any band, the bassist plays a tight/thumpy bacdrop to the star of the show- the blond and rather tall guitarist who displays an impressive array of styles and textures, whilst looking like all good guitarists should- mean and moody. Finally the drummer keeps a good steady beat and obviously an integral part of this combo. Contrary to what Adam or bi-Tim has suggested, in my opinion Hearts in Pencil are not just another run-of-the-mill indie-pap (whatever that is!) and whilst they may not be gracing the O2 Arena next year, they are nevertheless another exciting product of our city.