Wolf Ram Heart
Betrayal of Hearts
Sovereign States
Listening to Betrayal of Hearts has convinced me of one immutable fact: Even a band doing a clumsy approximation of the epic sweep of Echo and the Bunnymen, Mercury Rev, and classic 4AD artists is one hundred times better than most of their “modernist” peers being all detached and angular and semi-serious. Dayton’s own Wolf Ram Heart (the Bauhaus to GBV’s Cheap Trick, surely) succeed where so many Interpol worshippers fail by leavening dramatic gestures with Gothic subtlety and baroque weirdness. And they end up closer to their own thing than you’d think. Chalk some of that up to David James’ dandy-in-the-underworld vocalisms, some of that up to an arsenal of unexpected instruments, and the rest to a pitch-perfect understanding that all of the best moments in life are fleeting, and perhaps even passed when you weren’t paying attention. It ain’t original, but it’s goddamn sure one for the mixtapes.
Wolf Ram Heart: http://wolframheart.com
