Words: Paul Page
The Heartbreaks hail from Morecombe and have just released the best debut album of 2012. No contest. Funtimes has jangly guitars (remember them?), soaring melodies and a singer who sounds like an exact cross between Edwyn Collins and Elvis Costello. This is definitely a good thing. Like Babyshambles without the shambles, this is a giddy rush of sound pitched somewhere between the Smiths, Aztec Camera and Orange Juice, a throwback to the halcyon days of Postcard era pop.
Funtimes is a ridiculously accomplished album for a band so tender of years, perhaps the brashest and boldest statement from a new indie guitar act since the Arctic Monkeys emerged on the scene. Don’t be surprised if the British music press seize on these guys as the’ Saviours of British Indie Pop’ or apply some other ludicrously outdated tag. Let’s hope and pray that this doesn’t happen, because there is so much promise here. Opening with a trio of damn near perfect pop tunes, this album manages to maintain the charm offensive right to the end, but in ‘Liar My Dear’, ‘Delay, Delay’ and ‘Hand on Heart’ they have produced three songs that are absolute, stonewall singles – brilliant, summery blasts of pop that will lodge in your heart and stay there.
‘Winter Gardens’ sounds very Elvis Costello and the Attractions, but in a good way – while ‘Polly’ is full of killer hooks and memorable lyrics. Guitarist Ryan Wallace is inevitably going to draw comparisons to Johnny Marr from the Smiths – on the evidence of this, he measures up pretty well, while the rest of the band are no slouches either. The Heartbreaks are the real deal – this is the sound of youth still in love with making music; fresh, vital and ready to take on the world.
If you have even believed in the power of pop music, love guitars that really jangle and are ready to be heartbroken, you could do worse than to check out Funtimes.
