Love Is In The Stars
By LISA SOKOLOWSKI
cactusiv(at)gmail.com
Every band has written a love song. In fact, many artists shape their careers around love songs. Paging Burt Bacharach.
Burt Bacharach is great and has penned some classic love songs – “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me,” “A House Is Not A Home,” “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” and “What’s New Pussycat” are some easy examples.
It’s hard for modern artists to reshape the love song. Enter Breaking Laces.
The title track off the band’s latest EP – “Astronomy Is My Life, But I Love You” – isn’t breaking molds (insert the faux-witty, “But it’s Breaking laces” comment here). The trio isn’t playing instruments you’ve never heard or using foreign harmonies The lyrics are what set the song apart from other love songs.
Lead singer Willem Hartong compares loving a woman to constellations. Not with cheesy lines like, “I see the sparkle of the universe in your eyes” like evening dramas and drunk guys use. Instead, he sings: “Yesterday I stopped and broke down while looking at an ionic cloud you’re the sun you see aphelion is killing me.”
Yeah, what?
How about: “If a Shepard moon’s the thing that holds on Saturn’s rings well I need one right now”? I’m pretty sure that means he wants to hold onto her. I didn’t spend my Friday nights in a planetarium, but I understand the line, “You’re all I need here on the ground” means it’s love.
Now if anyone in the band – Willem, bassist and keyboardist Rob Chojnacki or drummer Seth Masarsky – wants to tell me what “watch the umbra start to grow” means, I’d be happy [[guys, the spot for comments is at the end of the article!]].
Even though I only understand the gist of the song, it’s one of the pretties songs I’ve heard in a while.
It’s followed by the nitty-gritty rock tune “What You Can’t Take Away.” And, just when I thought a funk tune would follow, just to throw off the genre police, Breaking Laces goes back to a ballad, “Coast To Coast.” It’s about a guy moving to be with his “E-honey.” Who wouldn’t want to be someone’s world so much hat he gives up everything for you? I kind of think he loves her more than she loves him because of the line, “It’s cute that you caught all my grammar mistakes but my love letter’s aren’t written for a good grade.”
Maybe it’s the journalist in me that realized letters had an unnecessary apostrophe in the lyrics. That’s either a perfectly placed typo or a very coincidental mistake.
The band tries to mimic Jack Johnson on “Bad Believer,” seeming to use vocals as an instrument in a wa-pedal. The lead singer of Disturbed does that best, and it’s something more singers should try.
The final two songs – “Holy Suburban Dividing Lines” and “The Errant Toss” – are stripped down, plugged in love song. Neither tune is acoustic, nor will result in a guitar getting smashed onstage after the final chorus.
The songs are basement songs, seemingly written with a private concert with that special someone in mind.
I believe in love and the power of a three-chord progression, so I like it. But the EP alienates [[oh, no pun intended, I swear]] anyone looking for an album that can’t double as a make out soundtrack. If you’re looking for the latter, put the EP on repeat – you can’t get much tonsil hockey in during 21 minutes.