The Head and the Heart- Every Shade of Blue
Label: Warner Brothers
Producers: Jesse Shatkin, John Hill, Sammy Witte, Andrew Sarlo, and Matt Gervais
The alternative favorites return for their first post-pandemic album and with Every Shade of Blue, the Head and the Heart continue to hone and expand the more polished and dramatic indie-pop formula that emerged on their last two outings and resulted in a healthy slate of radio hits on both alt and rock airwaves. If you’re one of those fans still longing for a return to the rustic roots sound of their two albums, it’s probably time to move on. Not that such a return to that style would be unwelcome, it’s just that its clear the band has settled into the more elaborate major-label production that has been their wheelhouse since signing with Warner. And let’s be clear that this is not a negative development; this troop has heartily established them as some of the most competent and confident purveyors of the same realm that has been similarly explored by bands like The Lumineers and others. Given the circumstances of the past several years, it should come as no surprise that Every Shade reveals itself as their heaviest and most contemplative record to date. Theatrical singles like the title track and “Virginia (Wind in the Night)” swing for the fences and capably connect as emotional showpieces that they’re intended to be. Those moments are balanced out with plenty of peppier and poppier experiments with tracks like “Tiebreaker”, “Paradigm”, and others that nearly creep over the line into MOR-Imagine Dragons territory, but thankfully stay on the right side of the tracks. If there’s any major complaint to be made, it’s that the record does get a bit bloated with a sixteen-track run-time. There may be one or two too many throwaway tracks (“Starstruck” for example), but while they don’t really add anything to the record, they don’t necessarily detract that much either. Overall, Every Shade of Blue is another respectable effort from a band that is clearly passionate and convicted about progressing both their band’s sounds and narratives further with each successive album release, and there’s plenty to like about that intention.
Track Listing:
- “Every Shade of Blue” (Casey Smith, Jesse Shatkin, Nate Cyphert, Samuel Dent)
- “Tiebreaker” (Shatkin, Asia Whitacre)
- “Paradigm” (John Hill, Sarah Aarons)
- “Virginia (Wind in the Night)” (Smith, Charity Rose Thielen, Chris Zasche, Jonathan Russell, Kenny Hensley, Matthew Gervais, Tyler Williams, Shatkin)
- “Same Hurt” (Shatkin, Sean Douglas)
- “Hurts (But It Goes Away)” (Collin Brittain, Cyphert)
- “Don’t Show Your Weakness”
- “Love We Make”
- “Starstruck” (Smith, Shatkin, Cyphert)
- “Love Me Still” (Smith, Shatkin)
- “Shut Up” (Whitacre, Shatkin)
- “Family Man” (Shatkin)
- “Taking My Time (Wrong Woman)”
- “Enemy Lines” (Shatkin, Douglas)
- “Shadows”
- “GTFU”
The 706 
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