Arrow

Heartless Bastards | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 14, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Partisan Records
• ASIN: B006LEHOOO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,561 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Erika Wennerstrom has proven herself a natural rock star. --Rolling Stone

With a voice as big and lonesome as the prairie and a mild presence that grows tenfold when she plugs in her guitar…her distinctive caw has a timeless quality. --The New York Times

Breathtaking. --Entertainment Weekly

Product Description

On Heartless Bastards new record, Arrow, the eccentric, hypnotic nature of songwriter Erika Wennerstrom's voice is captured by producer Jim Eno (Spoon) who helps blend the bands driving, straight-forward Rock 'N' Roll into a record that sounds unique and refreshing. Arrow instantly feels fearless and marks a major step forward for a band who continues develop with every release. Thanks to support from the likes of David Letterman, NPR, and a cameo appearance in the hit NBC show Friday Night Lights, Heartless Bastards show no sign of slowing down. Their past three albums have consecutive increases in sales from 20K(Stairs and Elevators) to 30K(All This Time) to 40K (The Mountain). Early press feedback has been unanimously positive, the most common response is that of Arrow being the Heartless Bastards career-defining record. Perhaps most exciting are the early indicators at radio, with WXPN, KCRW, WFPK, WFUV, KUT, and KXT already adding the record to their rotation

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DEAR MUSIC APPRECIATORS February 14, 2012

By Andrew H. Lee

Format:Audio CD

Dear Music Appreciators,

For true music fans, discovering a great new band can be a little like falling in love. No matter how rewarding a relationship becomes over time, there's nothing quite like those first few months of discovering each other and feeling like you want to know everything about the other person. After hearing the new album by Heartless Bastards (my first), I think I just may have a thing for this band.

When I first heard/saw pictures of lead singer Erika Wennerstrom for some reason I thought of Karin Bergquist of Over The Rhine - funny to later find out both bands come from Ohio - maybe there's some shared blonde/female Ohioian lead-singer vibe emanating from the both of them...although the music they play is quite different.

Heartless Bastards, for example, seems to be a red-blooded American rock band through and through. As a newbie fan I can't help but compare them to other bands in my collection. I hear similarities to The Stone Coyotes throughout, as well as the echoes of bands like Screaming Trees ("Simple Feeling"), Led Zeppelin ("Got To Have Rock and Roll"), and Brandi Carlile ("Marathon" and "Parted Ways"). There are countless other apt comparisons I'm sure, but at the end of the day Heartless Bastards sound most like themselves and the point is that this is rock music that sounds heartfelt and authentic and could be colored in sepia tones and sent to live on a record album from the 1970's.

The slow rock crescendo of the opening track, the radio friendly catchiness of "Only For You," the conga and acoustic 70's style goodness of "Skin and Bone," the epic seven-and-a-half minute guitar-god closing track "Down In the Canyon...there is, as they say, something for everyone, and I hate to say such an uncritical thing as this, but...it's all good. Really good.

Buy this, and maybe you will have a thing for this band too.

Sincerely,

Constant Listener

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Heartless Bastards maturing, to great effect February 18, 2012

By Paul Allaer TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Heartless Bastards originally hail from Cincinnati, moving to Austin about 4 years ago. Why is this relevevant? Because on their previous album, 2009's "The Mountain", there were some (albeit just occasional) signs and sounds of country-music infiltrating the band's sound, which was rather shocking to me, having seen the band many, many times in their early years here around town and their first 2 albums would've never given us any indication of that. Since then the band, which started as a power-trio, is now a 5 piece. Now, after another three years, comes the band's highly anticipated 4th studio album.

"Arrow" (10 tracks; 52 min.) starts of with a slow-burning "Marathon", showcasing singer-songwriter Erica Wennerstrom's amazing vocals. After that the album settles in nicely. Check out "Got To Have Rock and Roll", reminding us of early HB, just great. The album flows nicely, softer tracks mingling perfectly with harder tracks. This a band that is maturing before our eyes, to great effect. My personal highlight on here is the uptempo, hard-charging "Simple Feeling", again showcasing Wennerstrom's amazing vocals, she is amazing. It all leads up to the closing track, the epic, almost 8 min. track "Down in the Canyon", which captures this album perfectly, a slowly building, heavy track that eventually explodes.

In all, "Arrow" is the best and most satisfying album of the Bastards to date, period. So glad they've abondoned the country-flavors that popped up in "The Mountain" album! I had the good fortune of catching the band this weekend here in Cincinnati on their current tour, and they played many of these songs (and giving plenty of shout-outs to the audience of their beginnings in Cincinnati). "Arrow" is highly recommended!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Heartless Bastards album by far April 5, 2012

By MattMrdck

Format:Audio CD

Given my leanings (longtime fan of the band), take my review for this album as even more praise than I'm stating - it will certainly be regarded as of the best albums of 2012 when we look back and it can certainly be suggested that this is the strongest release as of yet by this mighty band from Austin, from their origins in Southern Ohio.

I'll let others go through it with a finer-toothed comb, but suffice to say, Erika Wennerstrom's songwriting, like her amazing voice, continues to get stronger, richer and more nuanced - and in the case of ARROW, more risk-taking on the Heartless Bastards' parts is definitely more reward for their fans.

I only choose to highlight "Skin And Bone," from a riff that's straight out of Keith Richard's canon and lyrics Neil Young would envy, it's as great an example of the album's strengths as any, and here's a good spot to mention Jim Eno (from the band Spoon) did an amazing job producing. Erika's singing is so powerful and equally so pure - truly a marvelous thing.

Okay, there's plenty more here and that's your reward - don't sleep on this one; and by the way, their live show is the only thing that matches their recorded output.