REVIEW: HEARTS OF ANIMALS 7"

The Hearts of Animals 7” is the first non-mix release from local label Dull Knife, who has plenty of other good stuff in the pipeline and can’t do a live show if there isn’t a band called Psychedelic Horseshit involved. HOA completists (is there any other kind?) actually already have all four of these songs from her two 2007 releases, the occasionally sold-at-shows Lemming Baby EP and the obviously out-of-print Grey Ghost #39. Given how small the runs were, odds are you are not in the bullpen with the other dozen people who own a copy of both (or either). Plus, the vinyl mastering sounds great and you’ll absolutely melt in the cuteness when you see the improvised mic stand on the insert photo.

Indeed, cuteness could be the word you would use to describe Mlee Marie herself (Hearts of Animals' sole member), with her blueberry eyes, unintimidating sense of style and dove’s coo voice. She’s the sort of person that shows up to your house with ice cream and fresh fruit, requesting that it be consumed with Champaign (full disclosure: Mlee is a close friend and we have dragged her kicking and screaming into a discussion as to whether she is ‘cute’ or ‘hot,’ the conclusion of which being that she was both. We prolly owe her a Sophia for sharing that). But there’s a storm in there, and HOA, rather than the more folk-based output she does under her own name, is how she lets the tempest out.

HOA tracks, universally, disarm you with their simple lo-fi bedroom pop and Mlee’s pomegranate sweet and mango sticky vocals. But when you sync the lyrics to each song’s progression, you realize that she’s letting you build just enough of that sandcastle to make its loss to the sea terrible, leaving you alone on the beach surrounded by stinking rotting kelp. On opener ‘Stars Say No,’ for example, everything is chipper and playful until “the beach house” becomes “the beach house where we used to stay.” Enter the minor chords and the disconcerting reverb. Is it in the stars that love or good times will last forever? In this case, and others, the stars say no.

"Lost in the Translation" is about as straight-ahead as HOA gets, with guitar and bass pushing forward hard all the while the hands playing them are reticent and ultimately declaring she won’t “get in too deep.” "Stop Talking," with its furious saxophone squawks and disorienting guitar riff is the headache that, unfortunately, probably every woman has suffered when approached by a less-than gentleman at a bar – “Stop Talking to Me/You’re making me Nervous” are the only lyrics (do you really need anymore than that?). The whole thing couldn’t be more disconcerting if it was a musical conversation with the mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

"Underwater Staggie" closes the record and is our personal favorite, with its twilight-on-the-trail drums, grandfather clock bells and playful banjo (or maybe mini-guitar) strummed and plucked toward the end, carefree like sugarless gum. But we know it’s not carefree, is it. It’s Hearts of Animals, and while it sounds adorable and the perfect sort of thing to put on a mix tape for your young niece, there’s too much reality in what we’re hearing to pass the Tipper test.

Just a year ago, most folks hadn’t heard of Mlee or Hearts of Animals. And yet, here we are, enjoying the debut from someone who already found herself playing in enough bands to bridge the grumpy old part of the scene (The Freed) and the young fresh fellows who have recently given us a much needed injection of vitality (Young Mammals). It’s no surprise either. Mlee writes a damn fine song and is about as great a gal as they come. Like the old It Came From Nowhere comp, it’s not hard to think of this as the record that could launch a thousand bands. How ironic that there’s a single person with a pointy red guitar at the center of it. Highly Recommended.

MP3: Hearts of Animals - Stars Say No