HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS
Heels 'n' Wheels (Get Hip)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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My high school sweetheart liked Olivia Newton John's music. Almost exclusively. It was a point of contention, to say the least. Baby, if you're out there, you were great, but why couldn't you have been a little more like New Jersey's High School Sweetheart?

Their songs are simple in the best way, raw and loud, heavily distorted and rhythmically driving. If some of that drive had been dialed back and the edges had been sanded down, a coat of polish thrown over the whole recording, we could have safely call it power pop, but this is honestly too relentlessly powerful for that. It over-powers power pop. But then again, almost every song has a clever hook, a melody that's likely to win you over quickly and spine tingling vocal harmonies to seal the deal. Man, sounds like I'm describing great power pop, except in this case you couldn't actually hear me describing it over the SCORCHING LOUD ROCK AND ROLL that sends your adrenalin pumping.

This is the follow-up to their 1999 debut, Passing Notes. Hopefully, vocalist Cynthia Santiglia and her cohorts won't take six years to come up with album numero tres. I suspect they're going to find they have a small army of fans after this one, and momentum can be everything, even (or especially) at the indie level. If you have a section in your CD shelf called "High Voltage Attitude Adjustment Music," I do believe it's missing a disc. This stuff'll getcha right.

© 2005 - DJ Johnson