The first 20 seconds or so don’t start out so bad. Some nice distorted bass synth. Then it settles into an unimaginative midtempo synthpop groove before the vocals start. Imagine the Bee Gees singing with custom made Eurovision accents. They get worse though, as the falsetto harmonies make way for a lead vocal so ludicrous in its affectation that it make The Scissor Sisters sound like a sincere folk singers in comparison.
Heartbreak list their influences as early 80s italo-disco and Black Sabbath. That means they rip off New Order – chord progressions, synth sounds, drum machine sounds and patterns – in ‘Don’t Lose My Time’, or Soft Cell’s pre-commercial art-electro in ‘Deadly Pong Of Love’, but without anything remotely adventurous, or early 80s Moebius on ‘Poison’ without any musical quirkiness, and then try to sing like Freddie Mercury over the top, but without any of the control, variety or tone that he was master off.
Don’t be mistaken into thinking that all that sounds like it could make an interesting stew. It doesn’t. This is paint-by-numbers 80s synthpop with really bad singing over the top. If you’re after something worth listening to, you’ll be much better served organising a drunken karaoke evening with your friends.
Adrian Elmer
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