ALBUM REVIEW: Fuzzy Heart

“The comedowns and breakups of misspent youth are shaky foundations facing the wrath of a wrecking crew.”

What if The Hold Steady did a DIY emo album with Alex Turner? That’s the question that Fuzzy Heart answers on their debut album One More Hit. A totally independent release, they’re a London band with a startlingly original take on an oversaturated genre. Fronted by the disarmingly honest vocals and guitar of Rob Hollamby it’s music that is as moving and unvarnished as it is anthemic.

We dive into the deep end on “Cricket’s Dream” as Hollamby descends from 60’s beach rock cheer. Its plastic major chord riffs and straight drums melt to reveal a lyrical fall to straight-on fatalism: ‘I can’t see a way out of here’. But it’s “The High And The Supply” where the record really hits its stride. There’s a propulsive, dancing energy to the whole song. It’s metronomic rhythms cascading to The Gaslight Anthem all out churns of Nick Wells’ drums, Henry Langston’s powerful bass and Tom Costerton-Davis giving everything he can on that second guitar line, like a sonic sea fret exploding on the shoreline.

The High & the Supply by Fuzzy Heart

It builds even further on the album’s mid-point “New Year”. At almost seven minutes long it’s an uneasy record about Hollamby breaking away from a toxic relationship. He seems almost apologetic as he stresses and frets ‘You’re still my brother and I still love you / This really can’t go on’. Indeed, towards its final minutes he’s overwhelmed by his own panning, echoing, dream-like guitar (doubled by Costerton-Davis), Langston’s thundering bassline and Wells’ bullish drums.

But the highlight of this record really comes towards its end. “From a Streatham Common Box Room” feels like the climax of a ghost train of miss-spent youth. The opening guitar’s warm grimy riffs mask a deep song that finds Hollamby licking his wounds after a messy breakup and bereavement: ‘trouble was never my strong suit but it fits like a glove.’ By its end it’s pretty sobering, Wells’ assured drums ground the experience but it feels as though Hollamby is trying to break free from all of this. Like he’s craving something more.

From a Streatham Common Box Room by Fuzzy Heart

What makes this record so singularly compelling is its ability to go from incredible euphoria to dramatic decline. Like The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls in America, everything has a purpose and a function, every song is an intricate snapshot of Hollamby’s world condensed down to riffs, chords, drumbeats and deeply intimate lyrics.