THE COURT & SPARK - Hearts Review

The first time I heard Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot I was blown away. Wilco had finally, fully realized the great potential that Being There and Summer Teeth had shown and that their debut, AM, had squandered. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is one of those technically complex and yet immediately accessible "concept" albums that few artists, other than The Beatles, The (early) Stones and Marvin Gaye, could create....full text With each of its records, the Court & Spark’s focus has sharpened; with its fourth, Hearts, it’s become crystalline. Hearts mines some of the same wistful, country-tinged territory as previous efforts, and elements of ’60s psychedelia, rock and folk waft through the songs like pleasing puffs of smoke (you know which kind), yet the band has sacrificed none of its experimentalist inclinations....full text The Court & Spark freely bleed a peculiar type of alt-country soul, staining their songs with a dark tension and a loose, rambling feel. It's a fascinating dichotomy that powers Hearts, a sinuous, expansive record that achieves a strange sort of balance by fusing West Coast country with shimmering sci-fi pop....full text