Headlights - Kill Them With Kindness (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Musicforants.com review

Taylor | Illinois | 09/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been practically obsessive over this band (who our described as "shoegazey dream piano pop rock sound that's full of guy/girl harmonies and multi-layered synths" since I heard a couple songs of their's randomly on the internet this summer.

The amazing part of Headlights' Kill Me With Kindness is what a full listening experience the album gives you from start to finish. It's one of the few albums this year that I'd prefer to listen to as a whole instead of as individual tracks. For a young band, they really know how to piece an album together.

There's some obvious highlights on the CD, and two of them come early in the CD with "TV" and "Put Us Back Together", both of which have been floating around the internet for some time now. The momentem built with these two songs is tremendous and afterwards the band only let's down slightly. That is, until mid-album when they rip through "Lions", a song that's guitar riff would fit nicely on Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight. The latter half of the album treats us to an interesting variety of songs like the bouncy "Lullabies" that is premised like many of Spoon's best songs and the Mates of State-ish "Hi-Ya". By the time you get to what is essentially the album's closer, "Signs Point to Yes", you're in shoegaze heaven and all you want to do is put the album in and listen again. Highest Recommendation!"

Stunning. One of 2006's Best!

Cale E. Reneau | Conroe, Texas United States | 09/01/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"You know that part in an album, any album, where about halfway through you begin to tire of the music you are listening to? I'm not saying that the music is necessarily bad, or even that you are bored with the album, but inevitably, every album has a moment in which the music seems to dwell quietly in the back of your mind. You lose focus. You momentarily tune it out, only to come back to it later. Essentially, you are not paying as much attention to the album as you were when you first listened to it. You know that part?

Forget about it!

That's pretty much what Headlights is saying with their debut album "Kill Them With Kindness." What begins as a nice, overwhelmingly lush, atmospheric, indie pop-rock album suddenly transforms itself into a sunny-pop album along the lines of Rooney or The Most Serene Republic. Though you might question whether or not the song "Lions" is the same band that's playing the song "Pity City," ultimately Headlights maintains a pretty solid sound throughout the album, satifying any doubts you may or may not have.

At first listen, I was a bit unconvinced. Headlights didn't sound as if it differentiated itself from the current overflow of indie rock out there, but I gave it another listen, which soon turned into listen after listen after listen. Quite simply, I can't stop. The songs on this album range from the beautiful ("Songy Darko") to the fun ("Hi-Ya!") and, more often than not, somewhere in between these two sentiments ("Owl Eyes"). In every aspect of the phrase, "Kill Them With Kindness" is a blast!

I recently read another review on this album from a pretty respected website that reviewed the album fairly poorly, based largely on the album's diversity and purported "lack of focus." I disagree entirely. Diverse, sure, but Headlights maintains its focus throughout the album, never sounding like they can't decide what kind of music they want to play. This isn't Fountains of Wayne's "Welcome Interstate Managers," arguably the most unfocused album of all time with country, punk, rock, and pop all on one album (which the aformentioned website gave a higher rating than "KTWK," by the way). No, Headlights has managed to craft a delicious little indie-rock gem. "Kill Them With Kindness" is one of the most refreshing albums to come out in 2006, and one of the freshest debuts of recent memory. Keep an eye out for these guys.

Recommended for fans of Rooney, The Most Serene Republic, Rogue Wave, Rilo Kiley, and anyone who is interested in hearing one of the best indie-rock albums of the year.

Key Tracks:

1. "Put Us Back Together Right"

2. "Songy Darko"

3. "Owl Eyes"

4. " Lions"

5. "Hi-Ya!"

4 out of 5 Stars"

Sounds like...

(alice) | Vancouver, BC | 04/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Others have written good reviews of this album already, so I'm keeping mine short and simple: Headlights sound like the band Stars (of "Set Yourself on Fire," "Heart" and "Nightsongs"). The melodies are similar, they do the male/female harmonizing vocals, etc. If you're a Stars fan, this band is definitely worth checking out."

A disappointment.

re:trace | 02/14/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I was a fan of both Absinthe Blind and Maserati for quite awhile before Headlights' first EP came out. Simply put, it blew me away - though I'd heard all the elements (shoegaze, electronic, dance) before, they were arranged with just enough of a twist to make it something special. I listened to it compulsively, and pored over every demo they released on their website during their "Enemies" tour. I was extremely excited for "Kill Them With Kindness" to come out, and actually drove an hour-and-a-half to a record store I knew would be carrying it, just so I could buy it the day it came out.

I was a little disappointed upon first listen. Sure, the songwriting is pretty good, and the production is pretty good; but the overall product is a little too polished to be truly effective. That first EP had a sense of adventurous unpredictability that really elevated it above a lot of other bands trying similar styles (see, specifically: Stars). For lack of a better phrase, "Kill Them With Kindness" shows Headlights becoming very, well, conventional. Predictable. Boring, even.

Which, as I said earlier, doesn't mean the album isn't worth a second listen. "TV" is incredibly, ridiculously catchy (if a little too perky/chirpy), and "Songy Darko" (probably the worst pun in existence) turns its' odd instrumentation and awkward repetitive bassline into a genuinely affecting song.

The high spots, though, are few and far between. Like most albums poised for some sort of mainstream acceptance and radio play, you've got a couple of singles, some nice tracks that don't bear close listening, and some obvious filler. Here's hoping that Headlights will redeem themselves on their next outing (titled "Some Racing, Some Stopping" and due out later this month).

In the meantime, if you're looking for sonically adventurous indie rock/pop in the vein of the "Enemies" EP, I'd recommend Dirty On Purpose's "Sleep Late for a Better Tomorrow" EP and Stars' last full-length, "Set Yourself on Fire.""

4.5 Stars - Excellent Indie-Pop

Nathan Knapp_Voronwë | Seattle | 03/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Polyvinyl has added another star to their roster, folks. Formed less than three years ago by Tristan Wraight, Erin Fein, and Brett Sanderson, they've had a short yet bright career--a trend that continued earlier this year for the Champaign, Illinois natives as they recently set out on a European tour. With their new release, Kill Them With Kindness, Headlights somehow melds melancholy atmosphere and up-beat rhythms with a rare ease that's hard to pin down.

The album's first four tracks set the tone for the rest of the album, and are possibly the strongest on the album. A prime example of the band's ability to meld melancholy and optimism would be the atypical opener, "Your Old Street," with its three minute string-quartet intro that leads into a mellow chorus in which vocalist Erin Fein sings of nostalgia and childhood amidst chimes and a rolling bass-line.

"TV," has to be the most easily likeable song on the album, with Wraight adding his vocals to Fein's while infectious guitars dominate the track. The atmospheric "Put Us Back Together Right," has an unpolished beauty to it, and "Pity City" sees Wright with the lead vocal for the first time, a track that ends with a well-done yet simple duet.

Fein and Wraight compliment each other well--Fein with her breathy alto and Wright's hush-hush attitude, and they really shine on tracks like "Lullabies," and "Signs Point to Yes, (Outlook Not So Good)". But one could say that Fein has the better stand alone voice, adding her luscious keyboards to tracks like "Owl Eyes" and the make-you-move "Hi-Ya!" Headlights seem to be poised to become Indie legends with only an EP and a first-album that falters only rarely. With Kill Them With Kindness, Headlights succeeds where many bands stumble right out of the gate.

"

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