Tournament of Hearts
Constantines
Sub Pop
2005
With it seeming more and more likely that Fugazi are unlikely to record as a band again, attention falls upon the hardcore community to produce a band that can follow in their wake; who can create the kind of consistantly challenging, forward-looking punk that MacKaye, Picciotto, Canty and Lally have been doing since the late 80s.
For a while, I thought that band was Dischord's Q and Not U, but after their final outing, the extremely experimental "Power", I lost faith. While that album had a lot of interesting ideas and sounds, like so much experimental music, it failed to stand the test of cohesion and fell flat more often that it rose up and stood tall.
Canada's Constantines, however, have been impressing me time and again since their debut album, and now with their third full length, "Tournament of Hearts", they have done what Fugazi always managed to do: to create something new and fresh out of the stale hardcore corpse, without pushing too far into extreme leftfield territory.
This album introduces keyboards and electronic sounds, and a kind of sound that reminds me strongly of the soul tradition. Those familiar with their previous releases will recognise the preacher man style vocals, singing to the faithful.
Opener "Draw Us Lines" has that thumping, rhythmic drumming and gospal vocals, you can feel pumping through you. It reminds me slightly of Talking Heads actually.
"Hotline Operator" continues the soul feel, a quiet groove played out by a staccato drum beat, weaving guitar lines, cutting vocals through the pattern.
Constantines build quiet energy in their music. Nothing pretentious or fancy. If you like your hardcore punk progressive and you are missing Fugazi, check these guys out. It's intelligent the way that so few bands are or can be.
Review - Kenny Mooney