Album Review: These Hearts - Forever Ended Yesterday

These Hearts look and sound as though Disney have put together their take on a modern pop-punk band. They sing like cartoon characters and scream like evil villains; have good wholesome lyrics about things like self-respect; and are largely inoffensive whilst remaining catchy. This may sound like a bad thing to some, but it has led to the creation of a good, fun record.

Opening track ‘Apology Rejected’ is everything you would expect from a band brought up on the Victory Records roster both past and present. Starting with a big hook and a sweetly sung refrain, it then moves into a guttural breakdown almost to plan. Much of the album is like this, though it tends to lean towards early noughties emo, rather than the chug chug of more modern bands, and this works to their favour, being that little bit different.

‘Romans 15’ is a big tune, and it’s gang vocals during the intro and monster guitar lines accompany it’s thinly veiled Christian lyrics perfectly. This is the only explicitly religious reference on the album though, as the band seem to be more about promoting a general positive life message. ‘Self Respect’ should be taken as the example, talking directly to the young and image conscious, after all they are undoubtedly the bands target audience.

There are a few moments where the band miss the mark. The awfully monikered ‘She’d Like To Wear Pants, But...’ takes the bands early noughties mark too far, and sounds dated; while the slow acoustic number ‘Thinking In Terms Of Two’ falls when rather than a successful change of pace, it ends up putting a dampener on the energy levels.

‘Forever Ended Yesterday’ will be just too sweet and inoffensive for some, but there is no question that to the right group of people, These Hearts are very marketable. If you are after something a little more saccharine than A Day To Remember, or simply a gateway into better things for younger siblings, These Hearts have to be a better option than the Jonas Brothers.

4/5

‘Forever Ended Yesterday’ by These Hearts is available now on Victory Records.

These Hearts on MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook.

Dan Issitt