Altsounds - Line - 'Hearts' (Album)

Taking one look at the front cover I thought to myself 'I'm going to like this album'. It turns out, you can't always judge a book by it's cover as I found out upon first listen to Hearts. Hoping for something sunny and happy sounding I was instead confronted by a wave of synth and compressed vocals. Certainly not what I was expecting, and no matter how many times I listened I just couldn't warm to 'Hearts' at all. A day or so later, I found myself humming one of the tracks in the shower - it had worked it's way in! So, having found it discordant at first gradually I found myself listening to it a little bit more everyday and ever more intently. Line seems to have constructed an album that you probably wouldn't normally listen to [or like for that matter] but somehow you can't help yourself liking it, is it wrong to feel dirty and cheap?

'Hearts' is very much the epitome of computer generated music it would be difficult to pick out instrumentation if indeed there is any, Pro Tools will one day have a lot to answer for! Opener 'Optics' is all blips and beeps and kind of washes over me but the vocals; which are buried for most of the album, and lyrics are enticing; "the workings of the human heart - an instrument as fragile as the finest glass" shows emotion in what Line (aka Neil Wells) is putting across. 'Go Let It Out' is a favourite of mine reminding me of 'Idioteque' from Radiohead's Kid A album with it's pulsating beat but, where Thom Yorke warbles like some sort of demented five year old, Wells sings of relationships [or lack there of] with lyrics cutting like a knife "I love myself better than I love you - if that's wrong, find somebody else". It's quite effecting.

'Paral.lel Lines' squeals with synth-based riffs before giving way to the seemingly bouncy nursery rhyme-lite of 'Lenx' where Wells vocal is much more distinct and clear as again he sings of the struggles of living in and out of a relationship. You get the sense that he distorts his vocal for a reason and that's down to it not being the greatest when heard more concisely, it comes across like a bit of a moan.

'1228' is more sombre in tone and sparse in it's content never really altering course or delivering. 'Number One' comes on like an eighties heavy sounding track back in the Fairlight days of early synth but again we get quite intense lyrical content in the form of "And though I know we are both in the same boat, given half a chance you'd happily slit my throat" very nice indeed. For some reason 'A Replacement' reminded me of the Knightrider theme tune. I had Hoff on the brain for a while but really it becomes more dark in nature as it progresses.

A song about evolution and the nature of man spliced into the theme of playing cards seems an odd choice for a song but the playing cards bit is only a metaphor for the evolution bit I'm sure, anyway that's 'Predisposition'. In 'The Winter Sky' the vocals are even more distorted and abstract than previously on the album creating quite an unsettling track that I kind of wanted to pass on to be honest and get to the finish line with 'LPTP SPKRS' a song much more mellow thankfully despite it's subject matter of a meeting with the devil and his refusal to take a drink (possibly tea, maybe coffee). It builds nicely to a delightfully riffed ending and the lyric "And all that night you feel as brittle as cheap synth sounds from laptop speakers in the summer night". Too true I'd imagine.

And so 'Hearts' is quite an exceptional album about heartbreak and, despite it lacking in instrumentation Line makes great use of the sounds created for the album and supplements it with some wonderful lyrical flourishes. I changed my mind about this album the more I listened to it. Goes to show that sometimes you just need to be patient and give something more than one listen.

Track-listing:
1. Optics
2. Go Let It Out
3. Paral.lel Lines
4. Lenx
5. 1228
6. Number One
7. A Replacement
8. Predisposition
9. The Winter Sky
10. LPTP SPKRS

Website: Line - lo-fi electro, acid, indie rock, techno, heartrending love songs

http://www.myspace.com/mynameisline