Hello, my name is Meredith Tucker, and I am addicted to Ted Leo.
You see, it all began about a year and a half ago. The week after a bleak snowstorm, which had caused us to miss the first in a long string of shows we had planned to see in Dallas - I won't tell you who because, frankly, it's embarrassing - when we trekked on to Denton when the storm cleared for a weekend at Rubber Gloves.
The first show we made was a second round of Les Savy Fav, and the night after was The Dismemberment Plan with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. In all honesty, I had no idea who Leo was at that point, but after the opening local act, Leo's burst of sophisticated rock 'n' roll with a country swing and his 12-string Dan Electro set my heart ablaze.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that Leo is actually a very sexy man.
Furthermore, it also doesn't hurt he was once guitarist for the Washington D.C. indie rock band Chisel, and previously of New York's hardcore scene (Citizen's Arrest and Animal Crackers). These bands, some of the most overlooked influences in retro-style indie rock, influenced the likes of the Mooney Suzuki and Delta 72. It also prepared him for what was to come.
After the Pharmacists' self-titled release on Gem Blandsten Records - which was, in all honesty, a cacophonous blend of noise that seemed to hold little promise for new adventures to push the band any further - Treble in Trouble, out on Ace Fu Records, redeemed them completely. Leo finally had mastered the wistful sound that contemporary indie rock newcomers Koufax are fighting for with the release of their second album, Social Life.
And now, two albums later, Leo has new songs to sing and a new energy, but he manages to keep the same exuberant and melancholy- dichotomous, I know- tones of his second and third efforts.
The new album, Hearts of Oak, is an exciting blend of thoughtful lyrics and driving guitar rhythms with a very Southern twist. I don't mean Southern like the Old 97's; Leo likes to play with distortion sometimes a little too much. But he combines loud, offbeat bass lines and talkative swoons to make something enchanting, as in "The Ballad of the Sin Eater."
Leo's poetry runs a rampage over the music, lying somewhere between irreverent like Tom Waits - "...all the way East to Novi-sad / where narry a bridge was to be seen / but Mother Russia, she laid her pontoons down / if you know what I mean" - and gracefully profound like Bright Eyes - "I'm laying out the table to welcome you back home / I'm calling on the angels for to lighten up your load."
While newcomers to Ted Leo & the Pharmacists will probably at first cringe at Leo's country twang he adds to his vocals and the way he croons away at his notes (see "the High Party" for a great example), connoisseurs will praise the way Leo has pushed himself to new heights. Leo manages to capture the same storytelling feel as his old records, though now, with Hearts of Oak, he is no longer afraid to challenge his own elements of fantasy.
The most memorable tracks on the record include the well-chosen radio single, "Where Have all the Rude Boys Gone?" "The High Party," "The Ballad of the Sin Eater," and the title track "Hearts of Oak." While Leo plays with fantasy, the reality is the entire album is a stellar project full of mystery, enchantment and the wonderful melancholy rock 'n' roll flavor for which he is best known.
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