Album Review: Arms And Hearts – The Distance Between

Arms & Hearts is the outlet of edgy melodic punk/folk artist Steve Millar, dropping the first single ‘Out For Blood’ back in September from the debut full length ‘The Distance Between’, an album full of pouring out heart rendering and laid bare lyrics.

From the off, this album gives you a hairs on the back of the neck moment, ballads that have an air of fighting demons, dealing with the negative in a positive way, reflective moments and a sense of wonder at how the world is, can be, or should be, nothing new when it comes to this style of acoustic driven album, but what stands this out above most, is the quality of lyric, the passion and the self belief in what is sung about that comes across wonderfully within Millar’s voice.

‘Epitaph’ starts, or should it end the album?  Full of sombre thoughts, this track sets out a story of how your end should never come until your’e finished!, a gentle acoustic soundscape that belies the power of the lyric.  ‘Kerouac’ follows this, with its acoustic spliced with electric Rock n Roll Gaslight Anthem esk sound (which definitely is a compliment), the beat generation? or simply being?

‘Forever The Pessimist’ sits nicely within the body of the album, truer words and all that.  Which strangely enough leads to ‘Static’ a song that has all the melodic beauty of a happy folk song, but covers a lyric of desperation and woe.

Never too far away though is Millar’s almost uncanny knack of making truly hard listening, listenable, robustly anthemic and very addictive.  ‘Community’ and ‘Out For Blood’ being perfect examples, both sing-a-long classics in the making, both not holding back the punk attitude that decidedly hides within the views of this recording.

To the end we are fed on three of the most soul draining songs on the album, ‘Worry Walls’ with its simplicity of sound, harmonica intersecting with hoarse angst ridden vocal, the title track ‘The Distance Between’  building on and on, to full band with no let up until it fades off as you reflect on what just happened, then lastly ‘Fortitude’ drops back to the acoustic ballad for an ending of anthemic leanings.  By the time you get to the last note, drained is one expression, the other is “glad you stayed the journey”

Although you do need to read between the lines somewhat, this is an album of reflection, melody, love and above all life! 

Released on November 13th Buy Here

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Check out the video for ‘Out For Blood’ Below