Reoccurring Dreams Presents: "Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats" (13 Big Ones)
My buddy Adam Lempel hit me up on
Adam Lempel & The Heartbeats' record is gonna be released on CD-R/digital [mp3] on Lempel's home-grown Baltimore-based imprint, Reoccurring Dreams this upcoming Valentine's Day and probably on cassette through Friends Records around March 8th. He's been slowly but surely leaking the album's 13 tracks to Soundcloud over the past few weeks and I've decided to showcase a few of my personal favourites, for the purposes of this review. "You Belong with Me" was also the lead-off track on The Heartbeats' similarly titled Bandcamp EP, which was unleashed @ the top of January 2012. It kinda reminds me of that cheese-tastic Beach Boys/Doo-Wop girl group, complete with layered harmonies, Pop-laden guitar licks, and a re-telling of long lost Summertime love.
Adam Lempel himself simply described "Echo" as the first track written for a since abandoned split cassette with Sara Autrey (Which Magic); A rough idea, initially proposed to house mirrored songs on the same topics, delivered from both female and male perspective(s). "Echo" is a beautiful song that features Amanda Glasser and Adam Lempel, who doesn't even come in til nearly the second 1/2, trading off breathy verses. I eventually ended up picking "B-Train" as my third track selection because it sticks out in my mind, dude in part to that simple repetitive guitar riff... there's actually 2 guitar licks back-to-back, I think (one right after "I can't wait til the B-Train comes," too). If you listen closely, there's a lot going on here: beachy vibes, dueling guitars, crashing cymbals, 2-part harmonies, distorted hand claps, etc. WEEKENDS, one of Adam Lempel's other bands are planning to release their third album [New Humans] later this year, but until then, definitely check out The Heartbeats. It's a great sun-soaked listen you won't regret, trust me!