THE BROKEN HEARTS
Want One? (Paisley Pop)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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The Broken Hearts album Want One falls into the proverbial "tale of two albums" quandary that often emerges when bonus tracks are stacked on top of original material. The first nine songs are post punk with a 50's pop twang, comparable to Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" or the Stray Cats. The jingle-jangle pop rock song writing of Mike Mazzarella is the back bone of the Broken Hearts and it isn't all that bad. For the first nine songs it's cheeky and simplistic, without the underlying sophistication of Elvis Costello who seemed to always be singing about more than just Alison.

The second half, consisting of eleven bonus songs, is wildly different in tone and structure from the boy meets girl first half. Amped up and raw, they are garage punk rock at its absolute coolest. Just when you're ready to tell Mike to just give up and stop calling her, he emerges with a basket of songs from the Buzzcocks stable of sneering, bile tasting grins.

The two halves of the album cannot help but split listeners; even if they like both, they would almost have to for divergent reasons. In this reviewer's opinion, the Broken Hearts are worth it on the muscular merits of the second half.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz