Album Review :
A Wayward Heart - A Wayward Heart EP
By Eric Pettersson in Reviews | Comments closed
Artist: A Wayward Heart
Album: A Wayward Heart EP
Label: None
Release Date: October 6, 2009
Reviewer: Eric Pettersson
Tracklisting:
- Midst of This Debris
- See You Out
- Winchester Girl
- What Is Love?
- Wall of Shame
- Searching for Your Spotlight
With six passionate and simple acoustic tunes, A Wayward Heart bring back that thing a lot of us used to call “emo” before the word came to mean something else. I’m talking Spill Canvas, Early November, and The Evan Anthem, especially their acoustic songs. As expected, these songs deal with lost love and broken hearts, but they never breach the whiney protocol, carefully avoiding what would have been an easy move into Dashboard Confessional territory. Just listen to the picked guitar work at the start of “Wall of Shame,” and you’ll get what I mean. It’s got that Chris Carrabba catchiness, along with soft vocals on the verse breaking into louder vocals later on. There is plenty of feeling throughout, yet it never sounds pathetic. The vocals are strong and almost confident. Some gentle percussion is used here and there, but a full band with real drums doesn’t enter the scene until the climax of “Searching for Your Spotlight.” My only visible complaint of this album is the phone call at the beginning of “Winchester Girl.” It comes off as cheesy and easily could have been done without.
Overall: With a short digital debut, A Wayward Heart enters the musical arena with something that is musically simple and relaxing yet passionate and full of feeling—especially the vocals. It’s a fine start for a young band, and if they continue to practice and work on their melodic musicianship they will soon develop into a band worthy of the comparisons made above.