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Album Details
- Artist: The Heartless Bastards
- Album: The Mountain
- Label: Fat Possum
- Year of Release: 2009
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2009-02-10
RecommendThe Heartless Bastards are a roots band thats comes by way of Dayton, Ohio. The Mountain is the band's third album, all on Fat Possum records and the first that I have heard from the threesome. Now the Heartless Bastards is really only Erika Wennerstrom. The rest of the founding members have gone their own way and from what I've read, The Mountain is quite a departure from what the group started out. It's a lot more rootsy. Erika seems to have found a love for folk music.
The album starts out logically with the title track, a slower dirge that sort of sets expectations for the rest of the album. Slightly happier is the song "Could Be So Happy", complete with some nice harmonizing. Then from out of left field we get the driving rocker "Early In The Morning". I had no idea that the Heartless Bastards would be capable of a rocker like this after the first two songs. I would assume that this was what the first two albums might have sounded like, almost White Stripes. But then we are given a lovely song that really reminds me of The Cowboy Junkies, more in instrumentation than anything. It really is one of the best songs on the album. "Out At Sea" is quite frivolous as well, providing another gem.
Fans of indie folk bands like Freakwater and even Marissa Nadler fans should check into The Heartless Bastards. If you have heard their earlier stuff and wished they were a little tamer then The Mountain might just appease.
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on 2009-04-01 tosnob Said:
I couldn't agree with this editorial review more.
The Mountain is the third album from Dayton, OH's Heartless Bastards. The new album was produced by Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail Of Dead).
The band is really the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Erika Wennerstrom. For this album she surrounded herself with a new band which includes drummer Dave Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebaugh.
Heartless Bastards' music is based on no-nonsense blues rock, with Wennerstrom's voice seizing the spotlight. She bellows and rasps her way through these eleven tracks like a 21st Century Janis Joplin. You can almost picture her swigging from the 40oz of Jack on songs like "Could Be So Happy".
While Wennerstrom's powerful lungs are undoubtedly star attraction, the music should not be underestimated. These songs are as vibrant as they are bombastic, with countless layers to peel back and explore.
"The Mountain" opens the record with a jagged and dynamic soundscape. The tempo picks up with the garage rock clatter of "Out At Sea", before settling into a mournful blues groove.
The band has some textural trips up their sleeves as well. All is revealed when they break out the string arrangements on an elegant "So Quiet" and a banjo for the organic "Had To Go".
The Mountain is a sonic adventure the listener won't soon forget.
Rating: 9/10
