The Wildhearts

The Wildhearts is a back-to-basics self-titled work the band released under its own name. Housing gritty guitar, sharply turning development and sweet melody together, the band’s inherent chaotic energy fills the whole record. Even with the experience cultivated over a long career as a background, the sound is not withered in the least, keeping a youthful impulse. The songs, though short, are dense with information, and unexpected choruses leap out from the destructive momentum. The roughness of punk, the weight of hard rock and the sweetness of power pop turn into a single explosion — the appeal particular to THE WILDHEARTS is condensed here. The band’s instability again functions as a great appeal. The playing is raw to the end, and that never-over-tidied sound image could be called their true worth. It is a powerful record fit to bear their own name.