BLEEDING HEARTS (LP)

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release from the Canadian band. Bleeding Hearts was produced by Cone McCaslin (The Strumbellas, Sum41), mixed by Dave Schiffman (PUP, Blood Orange, Johnny Cash), and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Future Islands, Spoon). Rock aenAE roll, if it serves one direct purpose, is to articulate life lived to the fullest u be it messy, beautiful, or a complete disaster. For more than half a century, rock aenAE roll musicians have been able to show us the contours of lived human experiences, scrambling to make sense of it all through screaming guitar riffs and rhythmic drum beats, hypnotic as they are soothing. This is what Sun K try to do on their thunderous sophomore record, Bleeding Hearts, which contains the whole spectrum of emotion in its 12 songs. The title of the album alone is a hat-tip toward the fraught, yet hyperbolic, emotional experiences one can endure. Vocalist and guitarist Kristian Montano says of the albumAEs title that the band is exemplified by just that. oThis is what youAEre like in your 20AEs if youAEre a bunch of expressive, emotional people,o he says. oYou know, we really wear our hearts on our sleeves and the lyrics, the music, really reflect that. ItAEs songs about love and songs about, you know, all the stuff you experience: love, hate, angst, devotion.o'