Though it was recorded and released in 2005, there's an oddly 1980s quality to
Edward Heppenstall's debut album, not in the sense of new wave revivalists like
Interpol or
Franz Ferdinand but in the sense of mainstream '80s pop/rockers along the lines of
Corey Hart or
Richard Marx. A booming-voiced singer whose emotional sensor seems permanently set on "urgent,"
Heppenstall blares his way through every song even when a little more restraint would seem appropriate, as on the
Night Ranger-like power ballad "Don't Take Me Down." Musically, the album's familiar sheen of glossy keyboards, crunchy-catchy guitar riffs, and funk-oriented basslines is equally retro-friendly. It's an odd quality for a new album to have, but
Parts That Hate Me is so emphatically stuck in the days of acid-wash jeans that it had to have been intentional. ~ Stewart Mason