The Head and The Heart

#7 – The Head and The Heart – The Head and The Heart

Thanks to John Paulsen for this one. I met John through my Tom Petty Project podcast and he joins me once a season to wrap up the album I’ve been talking about during that run. We always have a great time visiting and talking Petty. Even though John’s a Liverpool and Green Bay fan, he’s a good chap and during our last recording, we were talking about shows we were seeing and I think that’s how this one came up. John, correct me if my stunned goldfish memory is misfiring again there! 

Onto the band. I’d never heard of these guys before as I never listen to the radio, so I miss most of the new bands unless someone suggests them to me. They were formed in Seattle in the summer of 2009 by Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell and this album is categorized on Wikipedia as Americana/chamber pop/orchestral pop/folk rock/indie folk. I’ll admit that “indie folk” always makes me a little hesitant as I immediately think of the kings of corduroy, Mumford and Sons, who I really, really don’t like. But, open mind and all…

OK, picture this. An indie movie, possibly written by a famous comedian who wants to branch out into more serious work. The main character is a reclusive thirty something with a shaggy mane of hair who is known by the other inhabitants of the quiet coastal village he lives in as being eccentric and quiet. His passions are the bees that make the prize winning small lots of honey that he gives away to local families once a year. In his spare bedroom he has a huge collection of sparrows that he has made, by hand, from old linen that he finds in garbage cans from the nearby laundry supply factory. Each one takes him around six months to make as he painstakingly crafts each individual feather from the linen before starching the body and fixing the feathers on with beeswax (see previous hobby). A young woman comes to the village to execute the estate of her grandfather. She’s a confident city type who has never found love, despite a string of unsatisfying relationships. The two run into each other at the local library and judging by the close ups the director uses on the way they quickly avert their eyes, you know romance is afoot. They meet again down by the beach as she is trying to get better reception for an important call and he tells her that the large hill to the south is where she needs to be and offers to walk her there. They discover a shared love of the work of Matisse and gradually, a romance begins to blossom. A week or so later, she stays the night at his house and he leaves her in the morning to run an errand. Feeling the house is too cold, she turns up the thermostat, unwittingly melting the beeswax holding together the sparrows. He reacts badly. There’s some sort of melodramatic monologue about how sparrows carry the souls of the dead to the next life and he lost friends as a child, so me makes the sparrows. She leaves.

Cut to a scene back in London. She’s sitting in an artisanal coffee shop with an oversized cup of latte staring out of the window. A montage plays back of the times they laughed together and the fight that drove her back to her life. She looks up and on the other side of the street, through the milling swarm of bodies, she sees him, holding a single linen sparrow (made from a cotton shirt she left behind) and smiling at her.

Right. Imagine that scene and imagine what music would be playing underneath it. That’s basically what the majority of this album sounds like. 

I listened to this one as I was putzing around doing housework and I’m writing this review immediately after putting the vacuum cleaner away. I already couldn’t hum a single melody after just listening to it. That’s not a brilliant sign. 

To be clear, there’s not a single note “wrong” with this album. It’s beautifully crafted and very clearly, the band knows how to write good songs. It’s just that…. nothing really ever happens. Everything sits at roughly the same tempo using mainly the same types of progressions and structures. The singer clearly knows he has that type of voice that will suit a heartwarming indie movie montage sequence and leans into it. And none of it moves me a single inch. 

The main positive note I’ll say is that lyrically it’s very good. I found myself thinking “oh that’s a nice turn of phrase” or “I wouldn’t have expected that” and that’s always good. But musically, it all started to blend together into one safe, inoffensive, unspectacular whole without a tent pole song or key “moment” on the album where the pace or feel or energy changed. That would be my main complaint. I could easily see myself enjoying a song or two from this record and if any of the songs showed up on a romcom sad-lady-sitting-in-bay-window scene, I’d likely shazam it and check out the band. But I don’t think I’ll ever listen to this album again and I can’t see myself digging further into The Head and The Heart’s catalogue. Well-written stuff, just not what I find myself looking for these days. 

Thanks for this one John! Next up is They Could Never Make Me Hate You by rapper Pouya, as suggested by my eldest daughter, Kalyn. Quite a gear shift from The Head and The Heart I’m expecting!