Search - Have Heart :: Songs to Scream at the Sun

Brilliant as the sun and screaming at its rays

Alex Faber | Northern NJ United States | 01/14/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It took me a little while to get into this album, but repeated listenings allowed the melancholic guitar chords to permeate and drove me to read the lyrics while listening again, and at that point I was stunned by the depth and cogency of Patrick Flynn's words. Over the course of the album, Patrick screams at the world about recurring themes of having a weak father figure, one in which every heated and hateful word between him and you is still merely coating on an unbreakable foundation of love, of being sold social ideas of acceptance and familial bonds that prove to never be as real as they seem, and ruminations on the nature of relationships in general and love itself and the various forms it can take in songs like "On That Bird In The Cage," which openly hearkens back to Maya Angelou, and "Bostons," wherein Patrick creates a stark but still poetic picture of growing up in Boston and the anguish of helplessly watching someone you care about fall apart. And, bookending all of this, the sibling songs of "The Same Son" and "The Same Sun," in which Patrick turns his critical gaze upon himself, questioning the importance of his own hurt when there are those still much less fortunate, all of this without ever becoming didactic.



This amazingly textured and vital message is carried on layers of merciless, no-frills hardcore. The album is short (10 songs in 20 minutes) and the first track simmers for a while before the guitars begin pounding away at the listener, only for the song to stop after a minute, acclimating you to what promises to be a brief but powerful listen. Have Heart don't disappoint here - they've quickly become one of hardcore's most beloved bands, and the ferocity of the music proves they've earned it. One after the next, the songs pulverize, modulating a bit in the tuneful "No Roses, No Skies" (a tribute to Edith Plath) and becoming introspective in the mostly instrumental "Reflections" only to kick back in for the last two tracks, especially the closer, "The Same Sun," into which the entire band puts their all.



For an album this affecting, the artwork is fitting, starting with the boy in the cover (is he screaming or crying? Does it matter?) to the clean layout inside, with the lyrics to each song married to an appropriate photo that typically will show images of what was and what could have been, of times now buried by changes and pain.



Stylistically, this album is perfect, and Patrick's lyrics and vocals are astounding: he takes the exaggerated pathos of Trent Reznor and the intellect of Greg Graffin and melds them perfectly to create what's honestly a form of poetry here, with no pretensions and no hyperbole, but rather an affecting portrait of himself, his family, his friends, and his city; all of this while tossing out references to other musicians like Joni Mitchell, writers like Maya Angelou, and even the Bible, taking Lazarus and the tale of the prodigal son and weaving them into pain still tinged with enduring optimism.



The only reason this doesn't get 5 stars is due to the music: while its angry driving force is completely appropriate and as good as any modern hardcore music, this is clearly not just another hardcore band, and the more abstract "Reflections" and fusion of melody and brute force in "No Roses, No Skies" seem to hint more towards what the band could be if they were to expand more on the hardcore blueprint in the future. Still, the album is a deeply satisfying listen on every front and deserves to be heard. Thanks for reading."