BLUE SKIES FOR BLACK HEARTS play fairly straight forward pop rock. The beautifully digi pack packaged “Love Is Not Enough” contains tight vocal harmonies, well written, concise lyrics, and perfectly blended instruments. THE BEATLES meets BIG STAR cum YO LA TENGO? Singer/songwriter Pat Kearns must be so obsessed with writing the perfect song that it’s downright scary. There is nary a weak track here. Not one musician steps on another’s toes as every instrument is represented here to the T.

The bulk of the material here is performed with vocals, two guitars, a pretty burly (at times overdriven) sounding bass, a Fender Rhodes electric piano and some drums. Tambourine, handclaps, mellotron, and a trumpet hang out on occasion. “Turn My Black Skies Blue” has got the snare drum played with brushes and some slight delay on them. There is also some drone laden backing vocals “Otto” is an amazing acoustic tune with even another great backup vocal idea that I might steal for my own band. “With a Rubber Soul” has a good mix of acoustic guitars, bass, the Rhodes and some really dense lo fi percussion during the chorus. “You Know You So Got It” makes use of two drum sets. When one disappears the other stays on one side of the stereo spectrum. These are just a couple mesmerizing little distractions that fail to cover up the over all success of this fab release. This shit’s kind of fluffy and lightweight, but hard not to adore. Ten short pop songs in under a half hour. It’s short but it feels like a complete album and not an ep. The only way it leaves me wanting more is to perhaps check out the first album and then wait for the third.

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: www.blueskiesforblackhearts.com

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