Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring – How I Wasted My Youth (Marketstall)
3/5
By: Chalky
I first encountered Their Hearts Were Full of Spring when their debut album How I Wasted My Youth landed on my desk a week or so ago. The cover, illustrated with hand drawn artwork of a blood stained person looking like they are dying in the arms of a military looking man, dressed in black with black eyes, has a... fairly melancholy feel to it. It mentally prepared me for this slightly macabre theme to continue through to their music and I was quite surprised with the fairly upbeat clean indie pop sound that followed.
Partly recorded and produced in lead singer Markus’ bedroom in South East London, How I Wasted My Youth is a collection of delicately constructed tales of emotional struggles, feelings of resignation and reflections with a somewhat biographical air. A myriad of instruments including the staple drums and guitars but also recurring glockenspiels, violins and well fitted harmonious backing vocals provide the steady melodic building blocks of the songs, but for me, it’s Markus' voice that is the main draw. Controlling the vocals to emphasise the melodies he switches between Morrissey-esque tones on the more upbeat tracks such as ‘A Question of Trust’ and ‘New Favourite Band’ using the sweet sounding backing harmonies to keep the vocals attached to the song, to a more altogether plain spoken, calming appeal on tracks like 'Take Your own Advice’.
Although the album is thirteen tracks long, three of these are short instrumental interludes, which, if I heard them live, would almost sound like quick costume change filler music - not to say they were unnecessary. In fact they are quite refreshing and give the album an almost old school feeling of having been constructed to be listened to from start to finish in the order the band intended. Even the closing track, my favourite, is simply called 'The End'.
Artists in this article: Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring
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