The Longcut – Open Hearts
The Longcut’s name reminds me of hand-roll cigarettes. The only guy I ever saw hand-roll a cigarette was a ratty punk who wore sandals every day of the year. Whatever.
Stuart Ogilvie loves to yell monotonously. That’s the first thing you’ll notice on The Longcut’s new album, Open Hearts. Next, you’ll notice the rollicking square waves and the righteous weighty guitars. But Ogilvie will be first. That’s because he sounds like he’s calling the kids in for dinner on every single track.
Open Hearts has a beautiful range of sounds, from the fuzzy-mud synths of “Out At The Roots” to the clever, smirking guitar on “Mary Bloody Sunshine,” all with differing flavors of allure; “Do I dance, or do I sulk?” The group’s three members initially planned to keep the musical endeavor purely instrumental after their vocalist jumped ship and Ogilvie’s brash, boring vocals leave me wondering why they chose to divert from that idea.
