‘Heart Burns’ worth a listen
Ever the political activist, Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel was able to release his first solo EP, “Heart Burns,” just in time to make a few derisive final comments about the presidential election.
Alas, it seems as though this solo project will be about as well-received by Against Me! fans as was the commercial success of 2007’s “New Wave”— not very. This is unfortunate because it’s actually pretty good.
The seven-song EP opens with “Random Hearts,” a fast-paced rock song that addresses “American disillusion” and apathy. The album then changes pace and transitions into the slower, more acoustic “Conceptual Paths.” The song is simple and built upon one steady drum beat, but the strong lyrics are really what propel it.
One of the best tracks on the EP is “Cowards Sing at Night,” which further strips the music down to a single guitar to accompany the vocals. Its chorus repeats the lines “Come back home, Johnny, come back home from Vietnam,” and refers to Sen. John McCain, who was criticized during his campaign for trying to use his time spent in the military to gain an advantage with voters.
Following this is “Amputations,” a short but hard-rocking, politically-aware track featuring backup vocals from Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio.
Another exceptionally strong song is “Anna is a Stool Pigeon,” which has a bluesy-folk-rock sound due in part to Chuck Ragan’s harmonica contributions. The song chronicles the true story of Eric McDavid, a radical activist, who fell in love with “Anna,” an undercover FBI informant, who proceeded to turn him and his two friends in to the government. McDavid was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Gabel warns the listener: “Be careful what you think, be careful what you say, it might be used against you in court one day.”
Again, Gabel opts for an acoustic approach in “Harsh Realms,” a haunting song that truly emotes fear and loneliness in its echo of, “It’s a harsh realm, don’t abandon me.”
The EP closes with “100 Years of War,” another song focused on the current political climate in America. The vocals, Gabel’s lead and the background provided by The Eagle Rock Choir, are strong and passionate. The song mentions global warming, terrorist attacks, xenophobia and, of course, 100 years of war. The EP ends with a resounding chant that proclaims, “Don’t miss your chance to see it while it’s all happening. These are once in a lifetime events and time will wait for no one.”
While it may not be what Against Me! fans expect, “Heart Burns” is quite a thought-provoking rock ’n’ roll EP and is worth listening to.
Casey O’Lear can be reached at colear@nevadasagebrush.com.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 1:21 am and is filed under Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
