Souls And The Barren Heart
Noble Steed, 2022
9/10
Listen to Souls And The Barren Heart
A very diverse 8 tracks, Love Crushed Velvet pen an album that thematically surrounds a post-pandemic Manhattan and its chaotic urban life, and uses glam rock, classic rock moments and alt-rock stabs in its sonically exciting formula.
The album opens up with the pop influenced version of “The Future”, where the alt-rock swirls with gritty melody, and “Free” follows with a calmer pace of mesmerizing post-punk nods that examines just what freedom is.
“The Light Inside” arrives in the middle, and is a more breezy delivery of soulful backing vocals and fluid, driving guitars, while “Other Places” offers a darker quality that’s textured with busy but meticulous moments of bristling rock.
Close to the end, the album’s best, “Workin’ (Don’t Blame The People)”, uses piano strategically amid the firm moments that also balances calm bouts, and “Under A Rainbow” exits with a poetic, pretty and ebullient execution that’s quite memorable.
The band consists of Alex Carapetis (drums), Robert Richie (guitars), David Maurice (drums, Moog bass, guitar, keys, backing vocals) and Lydia Berg-Hammond (backing vocals), and their collective strength makes for an exciting and memorable listen that fans of rock, past and present, will enjoy tremendously.
Travels well with: Cosse- Nothing Belongs To Anything; Baby Fire- Grace