Album Review: Heart And Lung – You Wanna Know The Truth

Heart And Lung have now joined the hard working Red Scare Industries and first up on the agenda is a Re-Issue of their 2017 album ‘You Wanna Know The Truth’ ahead of a scheduled new album in 2021.

Why? you might ask, a re-issue, well having joined Red Scare Industries, they have obviously given thought to the fact that this piece of work really does need a fresh airing and a chance to show the world what they may have missed first time round, admittedly this one did pass me by too (hopefully I’ll regret not having it in my life earlier) lets see..

Not for the first time this month, I’ve been subjected to some baseball intro (being from the UK, this passes right over my head and does beg the question, Why?) but hey it’s obviously a cultural thing, heres out to you John Snodgrass for the first earlier this month, anyway, less waffle and onward to the real music, after the intro.  ‘Telecaster’ fires off the album with its straight up power chord, melodic punk with a Heart & Lung stamp on it, the stamp comes in the form of John Paynes Vocal (hope I’ve got the lead vocal correct, a lack of info, and trawling google is getting boring) a vocal definitely has a comparison, but somehow the name eludes me at the moment, maybe later in the review I might get the lightbulb moment. ‘Wasted’ comes along next, a simple lyric really, getting older does give perspective to your young self, getting wasted is great, but there is more to life, well maybe! 

Skipping ‘Hit Song No 4’ which certainly isn’t track 4 or a hit (should be though), now to the meat in the album and what made my ears stand to attention ‘Hey Man’ has, melody, lots of love, a sing a long chorus, but more than this though, this song has so much sadness wrapped up in a pretty blanket.

From this moment forward the album takes on a much more interesting outlook, songs that are full bodied and not just pop punk, think in the looking up of the band, someone mentioned Masked Intruder as a comparison, sorry to disappoint you teen punks, but these guys are so much more!

Title track ‘You Wanna Know The Truth’ sits perfectly in the middle of this album, a song that holds its place as the title song, full of love for the fans, where they are now and where they have been, “I’m fucking in love with all of you” says it like a sledgehammer to the heart.

Following this track has to be the hardest choice they must have made whilst making the album, ‘Recession’ your up! the Shortest track, kicks off with a Rancid esk riff, a simple reality check lyric.  

Think I’ll wrap this review up in a way that the album wraps up, short to the point and well formed, songs of ‘I Don’t Need You’ Tacos?..   ‘Ingenue’, perfect or too perfect maybe, depends which way you look at it, lastly ‘The Sound’ with its heavy Weezer hash pipe sound spilling out all over, showing that this band are more than they have been credited for so far.

Sorry to cut this short, but I did waffle on a bit at the beginning.  Talking about short, maybe a few more songs is what you find yourself hoping for at the end, great listening and full of surprises.

P.S.  still not figured the vocal comparison (damn!)

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Go to the Heart And Lungs Bandcamp page to get your copy