Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Heartcore

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 7 / 7 / 2008

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Review

'Heartcore is the debut album from Swedish duo Wildbirds and Peacedrums (aka Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin), and has come out on the Leaf Label. I’d not heard anything by the band before this record, and I have to say in retrospect that I was the worse off for it. Album opener, ‘Pony’, is a sparse track in the vein of acoustic Animal Collective at their best; a harsh, clunking guitar, slowly strummed under a great melody. The two preceding tracks are more jazzy fair, with pounding drums and vocals combined to make a more palatable version of Get Hustle’s sound. For me, the album really hits its stride with the beautiful ‘I Can’t Tell in His Eyes’, which has a fuller, layered sound and takes full advantage of Wallentin’s ample vocal talents. The album flutters between these three styles, with ‘Doubt/Hope’ and ‘The Way Things Go’ being the highlights of the harsher, more tribal tracks, ‘Pony’, ‘A Story from a Chair’ and ‘Nakina’ the cream of the sparser crop, and ‘The Battle in the Water’ and ‘We hold Each Other Song’ rounding off the best of the fuller-sounding tracks. I like an album that shows a band interested in different styles, and Heartcore certainly does that. Wildbirds and Peacedrums are an interesting band who seem happy to experiment with different sounds and tonal qualities, for which they should only be commended. A great listen, and another example of the great variety and quality of music Leaf have been and continue to release

Track Listing:-

1 Pony
2 The Way Things Go
3 Bird
4 I Can't Tell in His Eyes
5 Doubt / Hope
6 A Story From a Chair
7 The Battle in Water
8 The Ones That Should Save Me Get Me Down
9 Lost Love
10 The Window
11 Nakina
12 We Hold Each Other Song

Label Links:-

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