The Head and The Heart – Let’s Be Still

The Head and The Heart stick to their country/folk script, for an enjoyable, if not revelatory time....
The Head and The Heart : Let's Be Still
7.4 Sub Pop
2013 

The Head and The Heart : Let's Be Still

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In the wake of the success of Mumford & Sons (QRO live review), modern country/folk revival outfits have been getting serious attention – even if a lot sound a lot like Mumford & Sons (& all the acts that Mumford & Sons sound like…). The Head and The Heart didn’t reinvent the wheel with their self-titled debut (and, after a label feeding frenzy, did go with their hometown famed-but-still-indie Sub Pop). Follow-up Let’s Be Still sticks to their country/folk script, for an enjoyable, if not revelatory time.

From the slightly expected folk-harmonies of opener “Homecoming Heroes” to the slow, sweet, relaxed sway of closer “Gone”, The Head and The Heart don’t shock on Still, but are still good.  Indeed, they’re maybe better when they go more mainstream and pop, like the loving “Shake” or the intimate & wry title track.  Contrastingly, the old-timey traditional-sounding pieces such as “Cruel” and “These Days Are Numbered” aren’t the second coming of Leadbelly or Pete Seeger.

Those who loved The Head and The Heart will get more of what they love on Let’s Be Still, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  A genre’s breakthrough success can give others in that style room to bloom (something Sub Pop, the label that discovered Nirvana and thus grunge, know a thing or two about…).

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