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Album Details

• Artist: Dear And The Headlights
• Album: Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
• Label: Equal Vision Records
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: hstisgod on 2007-02-20

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If I said Dear and The Headlights, what is your initial reaction to such a phrase? Complete surprise, or utter shock would be mine. Though there's not a lot of the surprise element here, "Small Steps, Heavy Hooves" is an entertaining Alternative footprint stuck in a bland and overshadowed genre. Yesterday I turned to my girlfriend Carrie and said, 'Whatcha think of this?'. Track one definitely induced her into an answer and even enjoyable rhythm, but what about the rest of the CD?

Dreamy echoed guitar riffs with a building tempo like on Oh No! blend clean contemporary bridges and blues with a soft acoustic style. Throughout the disc, the vocals attack with a soft but explosive energy as well. That whole, almost cracky, but still entertainingly painful voice is even more evident as the album progresses from the lead track. Sweet Talk is a bit more electric, more defined with a distorted claw of Rock. I'm Bored, You're Amorous has a solid upbeat feel from the get go too. It's not the most technical feel, but its certainly a foot tapper. Tempo is the heart here as I may have mentioned before, and vocals are a mere follower. That in fact is what sets this release aside from the rest of the crap on the market. Later on in the track, they use melody and a strong drum pattern to rebirth the track.

Skinned Knees & Gapped Teeth really caught my interest with a bouncy style. The guitars played bars of up and down sound to build a playground for vocals of similar moods. Happy in Love has a slow acoustic step with more lyrical content than musical diversity. It's Getting Easy starts out a lot like another MusicEmissions.com hall-of-famer, Kieskagato. Truant piano is layered across a progressive storyline and vocals. The rest of the track just follows suit and acts predictable in that happy-go-lucky chanting feel. I know I feel some kind of bond with this sound, I'm just not sure what it is.

Run In The Front is one of those real predictable verse/chorus/verse types, but has a melody that will stick to your brain like Cheez Wiz. Just barely fragile enough for a book reading background, but power poppy and crude enough to grab your attention. Ironically the song titled Grace is the most melodic of em all. Taking strides from soft and slow to wild but very much needed juicy aggression the knowledge of how to ditch indie acoustic in favor of powerful electric is present on Small Steps, Heavy Hooves. I don't wanna get into comparisons, and although nothing after the first track grabbed Carrie's attention, I've enjoyed this disc more with each listen.

More consistently than their sound is the vocal pitch. And to be honest, it's what holds these guys back. While the energy of their vocals is only comparable to Jimmy Gnecco, each and every one of these thirteen tracks fall somewhere between bland and memorable. Let's keep an eye out for these guys.

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