REVIEW: Heartour — Divert the Asteroid (EP)
Emerging from the silence in a thick, smoky cloud of resonating melodies that, though synthesized, reach into the air and demand a response out of anyone listening right there on the spot, “When the Lights Go Down” envelops us in mind-bending sonic strength right out of the gate in Heartour’s new EP Divert the Asteroid. There’s no introduction to this track, no explanation for the noisiness of its harmonies, no blunt poetic integrity there to preface what it is Heartour is trying to convey with this opening cut. There is only the thrust of the synths as they push forward and into our souls, begging for us to hear the muted wail they present and, more importantly, to understand the emotions they embody without ever uttering a single word.
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“When the Lights Go Down” is one of two singles being released from Divert the Asteroid, with the other in “Little Waves” immediately following it in the tracklist here. “Little Waves” is a little clubbier, but I don’t think it was made for the electropunk crowd exclusively. It’s got the strut, the swagger, and the symbolism to be a straight-up dance piece, but as it’s offered to the audience between “When the Lights Go Down” and “What This Means” as opposed to being a single alone, it feels too integral to the greater point Jason Young is making with his music to be made for the DJs and no one else. All of this EP feels emotional, but this song feels more assertive in its passions than any other it sits beside.
“What This Means” is the brightest shade of gothic darkness I’ve heard in years, with its clandestine pop themes somehow being buoyant enough to make it sound as radio-friendly as “When the Lights Go Down” or “Little Waves” are. It’s not the ferocious experiment that “Twice a Day” is, but let’s be honest — there isn’t much material capable of being as much without sounding totally out of place next to the other tracks in Divert the Asteroid. Complexities often don’t make a lot of sense without having more room than an extended play can allow for to work with, but this just isn’t true of the new Heartour release at all. There aren’t any limits being taken seriously here, and if there are, they’re clear only to Young.
We wrap up Divert the Asteroid with a noise pop tune titled “Oh Love” that is by far the most eccentric content on the EP, but while it’s an antiestablishment anthem from the second it starts to play to the very instant it disappears entirely, the song doesn’t feel like a directed middle-finger towards anyone particular in the industry. Much like everything else in this record, it’s one piece of the puzzle giving us a pretty firm concept of who and what Heartour is in 2021, and while I can’t speak for everyone who reviews this extended play, I think it’s among the best to receive a lot of attention from the press in the past year of pandemic-inspired music and beyond.
Colin Jordan
