Massachusetts’ Wheat have been mashing up pop genre styles for over a decade now, but have never quite been able to put it all together with their consistent heart. 2003’s Per Second, Per Second, Per Second… Every Second veered too far in the saccharine love song direction, providing songs for such ‘memorable’ boy-meets-girl films as Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!, A Cinderella Story, and Elizabethtown. After the departure of guitarist Ricky Brennan, singer/songwriter Scott Levesque & drummer Brendan Harvey went too far in the other direction in 2007, with the far less accessible, seemingly trying to wash off the mainstream Everyday I Said a Prayer For Kathy and Made a One Inch Square (QRO review). That was followed up by difficulties with their label, Empyrean, which cancelled last year’s release of Move = Move EP at the last minute. But now Wheat have found a new home, and have balanced their genre styles & telltale heart with White Ink, Black Ink.
One thing Wheat thankfully did drop from previous records was the extra-long song & album titles, but that belies the complexity of tracks like “My Warning”, with its interesting choral rhythms. The choral sound is one that pervades the new record, building into an anthemistic uplift on the back (Black Ink) half on songs like “If Everything Falls” and “I Want Less”. Meanwhile, the first (White Ink) side sees Wheat employ catchy electro-synth pop, such as on openers “HOTT” and “Change Is”. The two sides do mix up a bit (smart acoustic heart on early number “El Sincero” – reminiscent of Eels, QRO live review – and swaying synth-pop later on in “Two Mountains”), and meet up at the record’s pinnacle, middle number “Music Is Drugs” (Wheat also seem to have a sense of humor…).
Since having their music featured in not one, not two, but three ‘a pretty blond girl’s love reawakens disillusioned young man’ films, Wheat got somewhat maddeningly hard-to-reach, despite their pop sensibilities and sleeve-worn hearts. But with White Ink, Black Ink, they seem to have found a way to draw within the lines, but not staying on the straight & narrow.
