AWmusic

First let me start off by saying that there should be a word limit to album titles, sometimes they get out of hand. There also needs to be some kind of truth in advertising thing as well, I mean, The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show sounds a wee bit pretentious doesn’t it, never mind a bit wordy. But this is really apropos of nothing.

The second thing I want to address is that second or two of foreboding you sometimes get when you look at something and think to yourself that it is just going to go horribly wrong. When I downloaded this album for review I had that sense of foreboding and I wasn’t far off the mark. I have stated that I hate giving bad reviews and it’s true. Bands, generally, work hard and try to do their best to make a product that will appeal to, hopefully, a large segment of the population. Much and all as we like to think that bands are in it for the music, the reality is they would like to see a bit of the green as a reward for their work. So with that in mind, it is with a sad countenance that I greet you today and a heavy heart that I have to write this. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and doesn’t count for much in the grand scheme of things and that somewhere there are legions of people who are just waiting for a throwback to the New Wave bands of the ’80s to come down the pipe. If there are, and I have to really believe that you are out there somewhere, this band is for you. For me, not so much.

It started out hopefully. Cosmic Dancer, a cover of a T-Rex song, starts with a nice Depeche Mode/Duran Duran vibe but it can’t overcome the lyrical paucity that was a hallmark of a T-Rex song. That being said, The Idle Hands aren’t great lyricists either so Cosmic Dancer fits right in. Loaded, the first single, contains such bon mots as: “All the unrequited emo boys get loaded” and “All the hopped up kids with their junkie friends get loaded.” In fact “…get loaded” seems to follow just about every line, although it is interesting to hear “backpack kids” sung quickly. I couldn’t decide if these songs were wry sardonic social commentary or if they just didn’t have that much to say but figured they should try for deep and insightful. They fail miserably on both counts. Don’t get me wrong, the arrangements are often quite good, with a mature post-punk/pop/New Wave sound that many retro-sounding bands lack but the lyrics definitely come from the shallow end of the pool.

It does get better after this but, for me, only marginally so. The Fall, the third song, is a danceable tune with a catchy refrain. It definitely has more in common with the Brit-pop movement of the late ’80s early ’90s than with anything going on right now. This sound kind of makes it fun but again the weak lyrics left me cold. Liver and Brains is definitely better, a heavier rock sound that supports the (and it pains me to say this because I love me some Jarvis and Cirian Daly just doesn’t have the pipes) Jarvis Cocker-style vocals. Daly, does have an interesting baritone but it is better suited to the songs that play into the lower part of his register, his voice tends to break unflatteringly when he tries to reach the higher notes within his range and a falsetto is just better left to those who can do it. Loaded showcases his voice very well and the talents of the rest of the band as well. This could be the strongest song on the whole album. Again, though, I found the lyrics questionable. Loaded, Married Life and Liver and Brains actually form a Strokes-like triad that I have to admit to finding likeable. By far, much better than the opening trio, Cosmic Dancer, Damage Control, and The Fall, and infinitely preferable to Queen of Air and Darkness (a nod to Berlin-era Bowie), Secretary (a song that could have been written by Snow Patrol), The Sleazer, or Space Thing.

What all this means to me is that, perhaps, a twelve-song album may have been a bit of an ambitious project for this band. They may have been better to just do a six-song EP rather than compiling everything they’ve ever written onto one CD. Certainly, they are talented musicians – the guitars are crunchy enough and the drums and bass are driving enough – and they have been getting a lot of favourable reviews from other blogs but I really had a hard time listening to this. I tried three or four times before I could get past the second song. This really, really isn’t my kind of music at all. They are catchy pop tunes, to be sure, (One reviewer who shall remain nameless compared them to the Jonas Brothers if the Jonas Brothers were an actual power trio. I find this a bit harsh, to say the least. I mean to compare them to the Jonas Brothers?!? That’s just cruel.), but I just didn’t like it.

The bands members are listed on their MySpace page as: Cirian and his brother, Criostoir (both Irish ex-pats) and Emma, Nick and Eileen (from Minneapolis). You can buy The Hearts We Broke On The Way To The Show on iTunes , Amazon and emusic. Anyway, give the following tracks a listen, they may be just your cuppa after all if the adage that somewhere out there the perfect partner is waiting for you is true then somewhere out there is an audience just waiting for this band.

The Idle Hands – Loaded
The Idle Hands – Sunshine on the Tenements
The Idle Hands – Liver and Brains