Ted Leo/Pharmacists
Hearts Of Oak
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Ted Leo
Hearts Of Oak
Lookout!, 2003
RiYL: Spoon, The Jam, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello |
When a 32-year-old man's high-pitched screaming causes you to melt into paroxysms of delight, rather than worry or disgust, you know you're dealing with damn good rock and roll.
And throughout the course of Hearts Of Oak, Leo doesn't back down from this promise. Like his previous effort, 2001's The Tyranny Of Distance, the new album packs such a wealth of magnetic rhythms, guitar wizardry, thought-provoking lyricism, and flat-out hooks in its 55 minutes that it can't help but to be pegged as a classic rock album.
Tyranny caught many a critic's ear back in the summer of 2001, and word spread that Leo had finally risen to meet his potential, as hinted at through stints fronting Chisel and the short-lived Sin Eaters. He had grown into a sort of Elvis Costello of the indie-rock generation: an independent artist with punk ideals who crafts intelligent, multi-layered pop music with a broader stylistic palette than most of his contemporaries. Hearts Of Oak sustains that excellence, and while it's not clear that the album is an outright artistic triumph over Tyranny, Leo and his band are definitely moving somewhere over the course of its 13 energetic tracks. "The High Party," for one, is a stuttering rocker that agitatedly analyzes the struggles of an artist trying to create in a world of uncertainty and looming war. Its social awareness paired with its shout-along danceability draws comparisons to the prime era of the Clash.
Meanwhile, the ska-paced title track serves as the Pharmacists anthem, an exultation in the power of making music and getting the most out of life. Leo's final verse conjures some happy MTV video in which the band strolls city streets serenading an amused public: "I was walking along some downtown avenue / I was sharing the sidewalk with my friend," he sings. "We were singing a song together (and it sounded so good) / we said, we said let's sing it again." To which echoes: "and it had no end." The group -- Dorien Garry on keyboards, Dave Lerner on bass guitar and Chris Wilson on drums -- does behave as a more cohesive unit on Hearts Of Oak, and its "team" mentality, embodied by the soccer-jersey group pose on the cover, shines through in the fluid arrangements and practiced interplay of the instruments.
Album centerpiece "The Ballad Of The Sin Eater" is a fascinating jungle of percussion, Leo barking a tale of a politically disillusioned American traveler whose journey around the globe is met with anti-U.S. sentiment that he can't seem to shake, his worldly convictions eventually worn down by Capitalist guilt-by-assocation ("you didn't think they could HATE you now, didja?"). Leo takes advantage of the word-jumble format by dropping loaded lines like this one describing the character's visit to Rwanda: "I spent a night in Kigali, in a five-diamond hotel / where maybe someday, they'll do the Wa-Tutsi, way down in Hutu hell." His free-association in the last verse reaches a feverish pitch, fluttering through "when I say 'me,' I mean my brain / and when I say 'give me the cure,' I mean to kill the pain / and when I say 'kill the pain,' I mean to get the Devil out / and when I say 'Devil,' I mean the manifestation of doubt! / What about?" Much of the rest of the album is just as lyrically loaded, intricately performed, and yet laced with universal appeal. Songs like "Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead," "2nd Ave., 11 a.m." and "Bridges, Squares," while played with a punkish passion, possess many elements of classic pop, from the warm production to the melodic instrumental bridges to the tunes' inherent catchiness.
Closer "The Crane Takes Flight" is another highlight, its undulating melody supporting yet another uplifting philosophical message, while the Pharmacists keep pounding the rock, but also using string arrangements and a whistling solo to great melodic effect in providing a fittingly regal end to the record. Leo addresses a subject who isn't satisfied with her place in the world by pointing out that she's already come farther in life than many others who have tried: "Your work and your home, like your clothes, are your own / like your skin and like your scars / I told you they had power all along, so don't you let you tell you that you're wrong."
Hearts Of Oak is the rare album on which nearly every song has the power to get you thinking and the hooks to resonate inside your head long after it's through playing. It's an impressive addition to Leo's catalog as well as the rock canon, assuring that this young artist has a lot to say and a well-evolved sense of how to express it through his art. While Pharmacists concerts have long been considered the truest representation of the band's cathartic power, Hearts Of Oak also deftly captures the spirit of Leo and his compatriots.
Singer/songwriters and rawk bands alike have thrived in the indie-rock scene of the '90s and beyond, but fewer examples of Leo's rarer breed have established themselves in recent years. He's a rock star in the grand tradition of Springsteen and Strummer, a crack songwriter, vocalist and guitarist who can lead his trusty band through feverish, extended rock workouts or stand alone on a stage with naught but a microphone and a six-string. Either way, his message rings out clear and the passion of his delivery does not waver. That's the kind of artist the world could use more of, and Hearts Of Oak is the type of album we've been waiting for.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.