There are few punk rock albums put out these days that contain lyrics with words like “apostasy” or “ossify.” Or that contain French. Ted Leo’s album does though. His newest release, Hearts Of Oak throws all kinds of mischief into the mix. There are the standard crunchy guitars doing catchy riffs, and then there are strings. There is punk, and there is 70’s Big Star-esqe rock. No matter what Leo does however, he pus a lot of passion and energy into, and so every song has a tremendous amount of feeling.
It’s rare to find an album that contains equal amounts of well-written lyrics, with energetic and exciting rock. In “Bridges/Squares” he writes, “Predictable waves of historicity, nostalgia for gas-lit times I’ll never see, Futurians manifest, Internationalists./Connected are the promenades and waterways—the living waves of harbor nights and city days.” Leo performs each song with the zeal of a fourteen year old who gets to fuck around on his Dad’s strat for a few hours while the old man is at work. |