Young Reckless Hearts
Castle Face
2014
Rating: 6.5 dead doves out of 10
The first Warm Soda record, "Someone for You," was a glammy power pop gem that received a lot of plays from me. It had just the right amount of hooks and crunch and attitude and vibe that made you want to listen again and again. Their sophomore record "Young Reckless Hearts" returns with only part of that formula dialed in. The hooks are definitely there - the album's title track along with "Save This Dance for Me" might be the two catchiest songs the band has ever written. The crunch though...the crunch is really is missing. The record feels very subdued, very low energy - I suspect this is mostly on the production side, but I'm no Steve Albini and that's just a guess. Without that crunch, the attitude and vibe are left lacking.
It's still a pretty good record, don't get me wrong - not many people these days understand how to write a good pop song as well as Matthew Melton does, and I'll probably "warm" to the sound of the record as I listen more. I'd also bet these new songs kill live, when things are naturally a little more raw and raggedy. Let's just hope on their third offering they revisit the same studio as their first record and get the feel of their music back on track.
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