Kill Them With Kindness

Headlights | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polyvinyl Records
• ASIN: B000G8O2AK
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,637 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Your Old Street

2. TV

3. Put Us Back Together Right

4. Pity City

5. Songy Darko

6. Owl Eyes

7. Lions

8. Lullabies

9. Struggle with Numbers

10. Words Make You Tired

11. Hi-Ya!

12. Signs Point to Yes (But Outlook Not So Good)

13. I Love, You Laugh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sounds like..., April 1, 2007

By 

(alice) (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kill Them With Kindness (Audio CD)

Others have written good reviews of this album already, so I'm keeping mine short and simple: Headlights sound like the band Stars (of "Set Yourself on Fire," "Heart" and "Nightsongs"). The melodies are similar, they do the male/female harmonizing vocals, etc. If you're a Stars fan, this band is definitely worth checking out.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment., February 14, 2008

By 

re:trace - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kill Them With Kindness (Audio CD)

I was a fan of both Absinthe Blind and Maserati for quite awhile before Headlights' first EP came out. Simply put, it blew me away - though I'd heard all the elements (shoegaze, electronic, dance) before, they were arranged with just enough of a twist to make it something special. I listened to it compulsively, and pored over every demo they released on their website during their "Enemies" tour. I was extremely excited for "Kill Them With Kindness" to come out, and actually drove an hour-and-a-half to a record store I knew would be carrying it, just so I could buy it the day it came out.

I was a little disappointed upon first listen. Sure, the songwriting is pretty good, and the production is pretty good; but the overall product is a little too polished to be truly effective. That first EP had a sense of adventurous unpredictability that really elevated it above a lot of other bands trying similar styles (see, specifically: Stars). For lack of a better phrase, "Kill Them With Kindness" shows Headlights becoming very, well, conventional. Predictable. Boring, even.

Which, as I said earlier, doesn't mean the album isn't worth a second listen. "TV" is incredibly, ridiculously catchy (if a little too perky/chirpy), and "Songy Darko" (probably the worst pun in existence) turns its' odd instrumentation and awkward repetitive bassline into a genuinely affecting song.

The high spots, though, are few and far between. Like most albums poised for some sort of mainstream acceptance and radio play, you've got a couple of singles, some nice tracks that don't bear close listening, and some obvious filler. Here's hoping that Headlights will redeem themselves on their next outing (titled "Some Racing, Some Stopping" and due out later this month).

In the meantime, if you're looking for sonically adventurous indie rock/pop in the vein of the "Enemies" EP, I'd recommend Dirty On Purpose's "Sleep Late for a Better Tomorrow" EP and Stars' last full-length, "Set Yourself on Fire."

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars musicforants.com review, September 2, 2006

By 

Taylor (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kill Them With Kindness (Audio CD)

I've been practically obsessive over this band (who our described as "shoegazey dream piano pop rock sound that's full of guy/girl harmonies and multi-layered synths" since I heard a couple songs of their's randomly on the internet this summer.

The amazing part of Headlights' Kill Me With Kindness is what a full listening experience the album gives you from start to finish. It's one of the few albums this year that I'd prefer to listen to as a whole instead of as individual tracks. For a young band, they really know how to piece an album together.

There's some obvious highlights on the CD, and two of them come early in the CD with "TV" and "Put Us Back Together", both of which have been floating around the internet for some time now. The momentem built with these two songs is tremendous and afterwards the band only let's down slightly. That is, until mid-album when they rip through "Lions", a song that's guitar riff would fit nicely on Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight. The latter half of the album treats us to an interesting variety of songs like the bouncy "Lullabies" that is premised like many of Spoon's best songs and the Mates of State-ish "Hi-Ya". By the time you get to what is essentially the album's closer, "Signs Point to Yes", you're in shoegaze heaven and all you want to do is put the album in and listen again. Highest Recommendation!