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Direction of the Heart
Barnes and Noble
Direction of the Heart
Current price: $17.99
Barnes and Noble
Direction of the Heart
Current price: $17.99
Size: CD
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Four years after
returned to form on
, they emerged more confident on their adrenaline-fueled 19th album
. Here, with conviction and confidence, they wield pulsing synths, arena rock drums,
's silvery-sounding guitars, and
's dry, emphatic vocals for a cache of fine songs.
In 2019
moved back to Scotland to be near his terminally ill father. He called
, who showed up and brought recording gear. They wrote and demo'ed an album over six months. After his father passed, they recorded through 2021 at
's empty hotel in Sicily, shuttered amid COVID-19's restrictions.
and
re-enlisted bassist
, acoustic guitarist
, powerhouse drummer
, keyboardist
, and vocalist
to assist them.
Opener "Vision Thing," composed for
's dad, is a transcendent, synth-driven anthem. The band is at full attack as synths zig-zag through
's snaky fills above a cut-time drum kit and breathing bassline. Following a languid synth intro, "First You Jump (Then You Fly)" starts with
's effects-laden guitar in overdrive. The drums dance as keyboards and bass cascade.
deliver the lyric in unison with commitment and resolve. "Human Traffic" boasts an electro-rock hook and a guest vocal appearance from
'
. The chanted choruses and woven electric guitars wind through layered hook-laden synths with the hallmarks of an '80s anthem. An acoustic guitar introduces "Who Killed Truth" and
enters with his still glorious falsetto supported by
.
adds sinewy fills amid wafting keys, and
anchor the band in a booming shuffle. "Solstice Kiss" weds Celtic pipe and string sounds to pillowy synths and fingerpicked guitars as a wordless chorus flows in.
's big beat duels with
's distorted guitar and
' loose bassline before
coaxes
's sublime croon in. The refrain erupts as a fist-pumping crescendo and the band elevates the proceedings into emotionally transcendent overdrive.
's brief, gospelized vocal solo is a highlight. "Act of Love" was the band's opener at their first gig in 1978, and the first track on their initial demo. By 1979, they were bored with it and never played it again. Here, its modernized rearrangement fits with the rest of the music on offer with airtight precision and rock & roll energy. "Planet Zero" seemingly starts in the middle with a wail from
above interlocking synth patterns and breakbeat snares. The set closes with a neo-electro read of
's '80s-era MTV hit "When the Walls Came Down." In
' treatment, it registers not as a prophetic alarm of political and social collapse, but as a gripping paean to the power of hope in times of darkness. Whether taken whole or as the sum of its parts,
is an album by a band that still has something to prove. They deliver big. Without forsaking their core sound, they offer listeners energized, anthemic, poignant, electro-charged rock & roll. ~ Thom Jurek