The Head And The Heart – ‘Every Shade Of Blue’ Album Review by Graham Finney
As a musician, it must be almost impossible to not have been inspired by the last two years. Jonathon Russell, vocalist/guitarist for Seattle band The Head And The Heart, makes no attempt to hide it as he delivers the opening lines to the title track of their new album “Every Shade of Blue”. “It’s been a long year, the wrong year, to be left home alone,” he sings over the gentle sounds of the opener to their fifth album and it’s a sentiment that many of us will probably nod our heads in agreement with.
Returning with their first album since 2019’s hit album “Living Mirage”, “Every Shade Of Blue” finds the Seattle alt/folk/pop collective in an emotional frame of mind. Describing track two, “Tiebreaker” as a “carnival ride through a wide variety of characters and relationships”, this could be a sentiment used to describe the rest of this musical and lyrical rollercoaster of an album. Taking the listener through both the highs and lows of the last two years, tracks like “Virginia (Wind In The Night)” and “Same Hurt” run the gauntlet of emotions and will have the listener feeling every word.
At sixteen tracks long, it would seem that the band are backing up to their promise to take the listener through the full range of emotions. However, while that is something the Seattle group deserve to be applauded for, given the calmer nature of their music, if you’re not fully invested in the band, you’ll probably find your attention wandering during the mid-section of the album.
However, to counter some of the album’s more inoffensive moments, there are some real highlights including “Hurts (But It Goes Away)” one of the album’s more upbeat slices of modern electro-pop. Honest throughout, this track finds vocalist Russell putting a positive twist on things asking “tell me that I’m going to be okay, tell me that life’s going to find a way…”. As we all have, it’s a question the frontman has clearly asked himself many times and one that, as the band prepare to pick up where they left off in 2019 with this emotional slice of modern pop, he probably already knows the answer to.
Pick up your copy of ‘Every Shade of Blue’ out on the 29th April from the Official The Head and The Heart Website
