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Shoniwa is both impulsive and precise: Every string-swept disco flourish or arena-rock guitar break heightens an unflappable poise that bypasses rote R&B melisma for soul-shaking celebration.
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If not quite the cohesive, brilliant whole it should be, Wild Young Hearts is an impressive sum of beautifully executed parts.
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It's an LP wrought for enjoyment, and whichever peers it name-checks, whichever influences it acknowledges, it meets its remit with flair.
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The perfect springtime record.
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Q MagazineThe Noisettes have done a stylistic handbrake turn for the follow-up, and come up with an intoxicating blend of pop, soul and disco. [May 2009, p.116]
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They retain their idiosyncrasies and their sense of history, and it’s these things that give this record an identity of its own, and make the Noisettes so very easy to love.
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Noisettes do two things exceedingly well: modernized girl-group soul and surging pop-rock, both of which are confidently and expertly handled on Wild Young Hearts, a very good album that falls just short of powerhouse status.
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The songs on Wild Young Hearts are well written, and the band is tight. They put me in the mind of Earl Greyhound, those three-piece sets that really work.
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Noisettes have stepped outside their comfort zone and into new musical territory. As a result, they have produced an album that accurately reflects their energy and personality.
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It's not a masterpiece, not a groundbreaker, but it's going to be somebody's favorite.
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No one's perfect, I guess, especially when they're trying to go from one-note to every note in the space of a single record. Sadly, though, that means that the dancier stuff, though I want to like it so much, is Wild's main casualty.
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Frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa scales back her Billie Holiday persona but is no less a dominant presence, showing herself to be equally adept at giddy twee (“Wild Young Hearts”) and crackling synth-pop (“Saturday”) as she is girl group sing-alongs .
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The trio establishes catchy lyrics and feet-tapping rhythms, but the words are plain and the beats sound too familiar to reach dance ecstasy.
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Wild Young Hearts shows a young band still unsure of what to do with itself (Brit-pop, Motown, electroclash, something else?) but sure that its lead singer is pretty great. And for now, that’s working well enough.
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Leaving behind the soul-infused, gutter-punk leanings of their debut, this desperately craves the attentions of the MOR indie mainstream in a way so steeped in bathos that the over-produced sheen of the car-ad soundtracking title track shines less like superstar diamonds and more like sun off a bald man’s head.
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The musicians are capable, it sounds fine, the songs aren’t bad by any means. But none of those descriptions are exactly praise--only one or two songs stand out in my mind when I’m not actively listening to the album, but active listening doesn’t give back the kind rewards that we expect from the non-pop records that usually require it.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 26 out of 35
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Mixed: 1 out of 35
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Negative: 8 out of 35
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Aug 25, 2010