Aereogramme

My Heart Has a Wish That You Will Not Go

(Sonic Unyon)

Record Review by Alexis Roberts

I look at a photograph of Aereogramme and what do I see? I see a band of four men who look like they should be playing shows with Scandinavian metal bands. But I don’t think there is a quadruple bass pedal anywhere near these guys. The album that I heard prior to this one, Seclusion, was just an experimental EP that left me wanting so much more from Aereogramme. When I first put My Heart Has a Wish that You Will Not Go into the stereo, I had a moment in which I asked myself if I had put the right CD in. Was this the same Aereogramme that had released Seclusion less than a year earlier?

So it seems, and I am hoping that Aereogramme is one of those bands that don’t feel the need to be so tied to one style of writing and recording that they release the same album every two years. As I recalled Aereogramme, they were dark, experimental, and overall slightly creepy, and I loved every minute of it. The new Aereogramme is, well, adorable. You can still hear the remnants of what they were a year ago, like on “Nightmares.” The ten new songs on this album are warm, graceful and radiant, with a certain lyrical bluntness that will catch you off guard every so often.

My Heart Has a Wish opens with a song called “Conscious Life” that exudes a feeling of being lost and unwanted (the perfect formula for any good emo song), followed by “Barriers,” which is a downright pop song, in which Craig B. sings “I’m sick of being bored!” I wonder if this relates to when he had to go temporarily mute after a nasty throat infection from overindulgence in delicacies like alcohol and tobacco. If nothing else, the silence helped strengthen and smooth out Craig’s voice. Choruses that once might have been filled with yelling are now showcasing his range and tone… and what a range and tone he has. Craig B. can really sing!

Ultimately, I have fallen in love with Aereogramme all over again, and for different reasons. Everything from the violin solos to the best lyric ever written - “I praise the Lord for drunken honesty” – are what is going to make this out to probably be their strongest release. Its mass appeal is going to easily outshine all of the other similar bands releasing albums this year, and I feel like Aereogramme will reign victorious as the kings of Scotland for a long time.