By Geoff Topley
For anyone who has attended a gig in Belfast in the last 15 years, there's a very high probability that they will have encountered Desert Hearts along the way. They seem to have been on the scene for an eternity, seeing off countless ‘Next Big Things’ along the way.
In 2006, they found themselves signed to Rough Trade offshoot Tugboat, but Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki didn't deliver on the potential that the backing of a bigger label could offer. At times mesmerising, at times completely ramshackle and almost wilfully falling apart, their career trajectory has never seemed to catapult them too far into the indie stratosphere.
Maybe third album Enturbulation=No Challenge will change all of that, maybe the core duo of Charlie Mooney and Roisin Stewart are happy to make sure it doesn't happen. Either way, this is a triumphant and glorious realisation of wider visions that have been festering for years. They took their bloody time to deliver, but my goodness, have they delivered.
Last year saw a lone single appear on Bandcamp, ‘Wolf Down’ was the song and it opens this album. Initial listens indicated a countrified Will Oldham-esque tale of possible death by piano; I liked it, but I didn't love it. This seemed to counter the reverence I have always held for the band.
In the context of this album however, the song just seems perfect. A bonafide earworm, it eases us into the newfound confidence, bolstered by additional band members Stephen Leacock (drums) and Stuart Bell (guitar). This is followed up by the punchy percussive drive of ‘Aw Devastation’, which amounts to one big tease to the glorious choral pay-off at the end. They just wouldn't have sounded so full before, this record just bursts with a newfound vitality, truly a band reborn.
If the eyebrows aren't raised enough by the first two tracks, it's ‘Powertrash’ that really makes you realise that this time it's for real. A perfect pop song, all lilting piano, innocent yet sleazy tempo punctuated with persuasive brass; it's easily the best melody they've ever written. Another highlight is Radio 6 playlisted ‘Barebarbu’ with its arcing ebo guitar lines. Charlie, the master of the acerbic choppy guitar work that permeated the previous albums is given added freedom to roam, brilliantly complemented by Stuart on ‘Silver Threads’ with its flicked guitar line and keyboard embellishments.
Desert Hearts could be best described as Pixies meets Bonnie Prince Billy and this is perfectly matched with the most impassioned vocal turn Charlie has ever committed to wax, ‘Heavy Hangs The Head’ is over all too quickly.
‘Tell The King’, given the right circumstances, i.e. a surprise inclusion in some film or TV show, could be the one to propel the band into the mainstream. A string laden pop song, (brilliantly produced at Start Together Studios, Belfast by Ben McAuley), it's a lovely summer tune until the wilfully obtuse Charlie rips into one of those abrasive shrieking guitar solos halfway through, as if to say shove your mainstream!
There are moments of less memorable tunefulness that almost appear as compulsory on Desert Hearts albums. Perhaps your personal favourites, but I found ‘Arrows of Time’ and ‘Oak Mot’ just a wee bit too ordinary when compared to the aforementioned tracks.
I don't want to end the review on a low note, much like Desert Hearts don't want this album to end on anything other than utter brilliance. So it is left to ‘The Usual’, to finish us off and the climactic finale, featuring the supreme talent that is Mr Rory Friers (from And So I Watch You From Afar) letting rip with some trademark blistering guitar fury. The song subsides in a feedback meltdown before emerging, reborn, as the acoustic lament of ‘Wolf Down’. What an extraordinary ending. You'll want to hear it all again. And that is that!
