Planet Rock - USA (2020-04)

Albums

PLANET ROCK 101

Crowning glory for

Sweden’s defiantly

traditional melodic

rockers.

NOBODY THAT’S been seriĥ

ously tracking the progress of

hard rock upstarts H.E.A.T

would be surprised at this.

Their last two albums, 2014’s

exuberant Tearing Down The

WallsDQG ¶VJHQUHĥEHQGLQJInto The Great Unknown saw the band

moving at such velocity and making such artistic headway that fans

were left a little dizzy. This time, with the release of the confusingly

titled H.E.A.T IIĪWKHLUVL[WKDOEXPīWKH\¶YHIXUWKHUXSSHGWKHDQWH

It starts with the thrusting, musclebound pump of Rock Your Body,

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to again and again. This amalgam of balls and tunefulness brushes the

fringes of perfection. Producing things themselves, the band has veered

away from their last album’s diversity, but they’ve not so much returned

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imagined those very markers.

So many bands of their generation have

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past heroes. Perhaps the most remarkable

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they’ve not merely broken the cycle, but

they’ve actually raised the bar. H.E.A.T II

sounds like Europe on

speed, Journey mutated

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battling TIE Fighters

while gargling Space

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ing be damned!

Let’s turn this

H.E.A.T up!

BEST

TRACKS:

Rock Your Body,

Rise, Heaven Must

GU Have Won An Angel

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might question why it’s emerging as a solo

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Keeler committed to activities with The

Raconteurs, Dulli opted to forge ahead on his

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Prince and Todd Rundgren in writing almost

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beat for the album himself. If that means that,

in places, the instrumentation is a little more

rudimentary than the sophistication one might

hear in his other projects, it also gives

Random Desire a rare and welcome intimacy and

immediacy.

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Pantomima. Taking its title from the Spanish

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a rumbling bass line, jabbing guitars and percussive funk rhythms, and

references the teasing games lovers play, with Dulli sliding straight into

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I’ll stop by.” Next up, Sempre turns the temperature down several

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turns the emotional screws further, picking at wounds and scabs, with

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feelings, and the knowledge that sometimes there’s mutual liberation

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gets next to you.”

Neither love nor morality is straightforward here. It Falls Apart is

another emotional gut punch, dissecting a relationship’s deterioration

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running up against twinkling harp runs and Dulli repeatedly promising,

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tion and resignation in equal measure. It’s a deliberately open ending,

leaving one unsettled and unnerved, craving a little certainty in a world

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ises. The party is over,

now we must crawl

into daylight’s harsh

glare, wondering what

apologies are

owed, and to

who. No one

ever said this

life was easy.

BEST TRACKS:

Pantomima,

A Ghost,

Slow Pan

“

This record

brushes the fringes

of perfection...

”

TRACKS

Rock Your Body

Dangerous Ground

Come Clean

Victory

We Are Gods

Adrenaline

One By One

Nothing To Say

Heaven Must Have

Won An Angel

Under The Gun

Rise

TRACKS

Pantomima

Sempre

Marry Me

The Tide

Scorpio

It Falls Apart

A Ghost

Lockless

Black Moon

Slow Pan

BY STEVE BEEBEE

H.E.A.T

H.E.A.T II

EARMUSIC

+++++

Hot stuff:

Swedish retro

rockers

H.E.A.T.