Sondre Lerche
Heartbeat Radio
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Label: Rounder
Heartbeat Radio is the sixth album from Norwegian-born Sondre Lerche, a 27 year-old emigrant now residing in Brooklyn. Since the turn of the millennium, he’s made a name for himself making shiny pop and occasionally scruffy garage rock in the vein of A-ha and Elvis Costello (both of whom he’s toured with, the lucky sod). On this outing he pretty much sticks to that formula, erring more on the innocuous side of things. The guitars are light and usually acoustic, augmented by lots of strings and auxiliary percussion. Lerche’s chords appropriate jazz styling as much as classic pop, and his vocal style follows suit – it’s a mid-range croon and occasionally, a sugary falsetto. Unfortunately, his nonchalant approach ends up being a detriment. The record skips along unconcerned and is consequently forgettable, as on tracks like “If Only,” a failed exercise in grooviness with an irritatingly airy melody and conviction-less delivery. I’m also 95% sure that the song’s staccato synth-punches are stolen from the sound effect in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater that happens when you get a S-K-A-T-E letter.
Lyrically, the record has similar problems. Costello is a noticeable influence on Lerche’s writing style, and he tries to attain the same level of hyper-wordy playfulness but just can’t reach it. Costello, at least in his heyday, had bitterness and rage behind even his most upbeat melodies. There was a sense of danger in his songs even when it seemed he was just reading out of a thesaurus of wry rhymes. Lerche has the verbosity down but it doesn’t seem like he’s ever been more than bemused about anything. There’s no weight to his words, and he also has a habit of totally wearing out his lyrical conceits. Take “Like Lazenby” (as in George, who played James Bond for a single film): “I’d do it all again, if I had the chance/ Just like Lazenby/ Can I do it over, don’t I get a second try?/ Every time I mess my lines and stumble/ Just like Lazenby.” There’s really no other sentiment in the song, not to mention the fact that it could be referencing just about any other B-list actor. The title track doesn’t fare much better in its love as radio image: “Tell me why you’re changing the station/ What comes after heavy rotation?/ I want to know: am I coming through?“
Heartbeat Radio’s best moments are ultimately front-loaded. “Good Luck” features some of the most interesting playing on the record, with its guitars bouncing between speakers and echoing off into space. It’s also the most dramatic offering – unlike most everything else, the arrangement builds tension, with the back end of the song giving way to racing, ambiguous strings. And “I Cannot Let You Go” is actually pretty lovely, a forlorn ballad that manages just the right balance between whimsical and wistful. Even “Like Lazenby,” in spite of its lame wording has a winning “Unchained Melody” kind of vibe. Any other tunes’ winsomeness gets lost easily between the forgettable (“Pioneer,” “Don’t Look Now”) and the downright bad (“If Only,” “Words and Music”). At one point Lerche sings, “I want to know how you really feel.” Well Sondre, I just don’t think we should keep trying to make it work when you’re obviously more into it than I am.
by Bryan Kerwin
