Hearts and Unicorns is mix of grungy guitar riffs and beautiful melodies. Annie’s vocals resemble those of PJ Harvey but with a little bit more of the Kathleen Hanna feel. The opening track and current single Kevin Is Gay (which apparently was named so as to entertain Micah during rehearsal) is a catchy, more pop like song. Something you can nod your head and sing along to!
Second track, Cordial Invitation, is a wandering dreamy song, full of feeling, quiet and easy to listen to. Next it’s ‘This isn’t it’, popular with radio stations and its obvious why. ‘Love, love, love, this isn’t it, love, love, love you wouldn’t know it, if it hit you,’ sighs Annie in the chorus, sounding almost exasperated.
YFLMD, which is an abbreviation of ‘you fuck like my dad’ is so far my favorite track on the album. The simple but addictive riff immediately stood out to me. It has a darker feel than the songs preceding it and a lot of atmosphere and power.
Bursting in on our ears High Friends in Places is a fantastic tune which gets right on with it. The lyrics here are also interesting; the general songwriting on the album is far more interesting than anything else I’ve heard on the air ways recently.
The pace drops as we reach the songs ‘You’re full of shit (check out my sweet riffs)’ and ‘Everything’s Worse’ but picks straight up again with a brilliant drum intro into ‘My Dick Sux’. Another brilliantly simple and addictive riff in this a perfect punk rock song, resembling the likes of Nirvana and Hole. The album draws to an end with the heartbreaking ‘Smashing’ and then ‘slayer’, finishing with the just plain weird ‘Shine, shine, shine / mango mongo’.
Review by F.M.