The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic (Dirtnap)

It’s very rare that I write a full review of any of the records I list every week on my Top 10 list. However, this past week I’ve made a discovery so startling that I just had to write about it. As music fans, we all live for finding that one record that we listen to and spin over and over again. These days, with the amount of music released, it’s very rare that I find myself going back so often to an individual band, let alone an individual record. However, this past week, I found what’s perhaps my new favorite album of the millennium. It’ll likely end up on my all-time favorite albums list as well. That record is Guitar Romantic by the sadly defunct Portland, Oregon quartet THE EXPLODING HEARTS. As many already know, three of its four members died after their van swerved off I-5 while coming back to Oregon from a triumphant show in San Francisco (the first time they’d ever played there). As much of a horrible tragedy it is that their young lives were caught short, they did leave the world with what I regard as one of the finest albums in its genre that I’ve ever heard. That album is Guitar Romantic. From the first track (“Modern Kicks”), you can already tell that it’s gonna be a corker. The chorus and the title evoke THE UNDERTONES’ immortal “Teenage Kicks,” and there’s plenty more of that where it came from. The second song, “I’m a Pretender,” is an immediate standout because it starts out with a super-catchy chorus reminscent of how late ‘70s UK bands like the aforementioned Undertones and GENERATION X would incorporate early ‘70s UK glam into their sound (think the former’s “Jump Boys” or GARY GLITTER tribute “Hard Luck”). The difference, however, is that the production has more in common with the values of scuzzy, mid-’60s garage rock as well as its many revivals in the mid-’80s, early ‘90s, and most recently the early ‘00s, the latter of which this band was peripherally a part of, though in reality they were much different. Regardless, the next peak comes with the fifth track “Sleeping Aides and Razor Blades” with an outro so catchy you’ll be humming it all day after only one listen. The seventh track, “Throwaway Style,” may be the album’s absolute highlight, though. Simply put, it’s one of the catchiest songs I’ve ever heard in my life: its manic chorus jumps out at you much like a punkier version of SWEET’s “Fox on the Run” or something of that ilk. The ninth track, “Jailbird,” with its hilarious lyrics about sniffing glue, is another highlight, and the eighth track, “Boulevard Trash,” with its rollicking barrelhouse piano (reminiscent of the NEW YORK DOLLS) courtesy of KING LOUIE BANKSTON (who co-wrote half of the songs on the album), is another winner as well, evoking the past but feeling fresh and new at the same time.

This is another crucial part of this record’s appeal. Although it’s obviously indebted to the past, at its heart the record is absolutely timeless. It feels like somehow, this quartet of kids in their early twenties found the missing links between power-pop, pop-punk, glam, and garage rock and synthesized them into one amazing platter. What’s truly astonishing is not that they made a really good record that’s a culmination of their influences, but that the record is good enough on its own that it may be even better than any of them. At the very least, it’s the equal of anything by The Undertones, THE BOYS, Generation X or THE ONLY ONES. I don’t say that lightly, either. I’m a huge fan of the styles and many of the artists that they emulated, which admittedly is part of the reason I’m so taken with it. Nevertheless, Guitar Romantic stands out on its own. The lyrics, too, are poignant appraisals of teenage and early-twenties love and lust that seem realistic, innocent and juvenile without ever sounding forced, macho, or imaginary paeans to unattainable women like much power-pop. All in all, this record sums up everything I love about rock and roll. I’ve been playing it religiously, I’m absolutely blown away by it ,and I give it my absolute highest recommendation.

Another thing that struck me about it on the first few listens is how everything I’ve written about this album was said about THE STROKES debut album Is This It? back when it came out in 2001. I never really got the appeal of that album (although I like a few of its songs), but how sad and ironic is it that The Strokes almost went platinum and became stars while The Exploding Hearts met their end in a ditch off of I-5? I guess that’s the way of the world, though, isn’t it?

While on the surface both Is This It? and Guitar Romantic are influenced heavily by ‘70s power-pop, pop-punk, and new wave, the differences are also clear. Guitar Romantic doesn’t have a shred of ironic, detached cool; instead it’s about some kids being completely and totally in love with rock and roll, and isn’t that what it’s really all about? You can just hear the joy popping out of the grooves of this record. Even songs about disillusionment in relationships such as “Thorns and Roses” sound joyous in their celebration, almost like an admission that while love can be complicated, we can celebrate and get our frustrations out with this wonderful, joyous record. And so is it a surprise that after a bad day at work, I put this record on a few days ago and it lifted my mood right up? Long live The Exploding Hearts!