Album review: 'The Head and the Heart'
2 stars (out of 4)
On its self-titled debut album, the Seattle co-ed sextet specializes in misty ballads and piano-driven sing-alongs that long for an America that doesn’t exist anymore. The wistfulness shares some characteristics with the music of (more accomplished) Sub Pop labelmates Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper, with all its references to a more spiritual sense of self tied to a bucolic, idealized past. Like the hippie bards and folkies of the ‘60s, these 21st Century songwriters take personally their generation’s lost innocence. In addressing just how rootless we have become, the Head and the Heart fill their songs with romantic images of deep valleys, “whiskey rivers” and home. The earnestness can become cloying: “we were young, so many years ago.” More problematic are the melodies and the songs themselves; they strive for rousing resonance, a deep sense of loss, but often settle for pat prettiness and easy sentimentality.
greg@gregkot.com