I had a spell of anxiety last week stemming from having a broken computer and automobile, but branching out into all kinds of ugly feelings of self-doubt. I was also deprived of a working cassette player with which to listen to the stack of tapes that has been sitting on my desk.
I have a tape player and am mostly over that anxiety now after listening to HEHFU’s The Single Collection, a chronicle of the pain of a stranger in Wales going through a breakup and feeling much worse than me.
I wanted to hate this. When I was stuck without a tape player, I only had the lyric sheet, printed on a separate glossy quarter zine, to get an impression of what the band was about (I try to base reviews of bands I’ve never heard before on the material they send alone, leaving any other research for the end of the review when I post a link to a website with music. Also, I neglected to open this tape up and just use the download code). It was the typical poppy heartbreak lyrics that aren’t my thing, stuff like “I wrapped you in cotton wool. I didn’t want to suffocate you”. I’ve ragged on at least one other band for these kinds of lyrics, and will do so in this review.
I think it’s weird that all of these songs are directed at the same person. I wonder if this person goes to shows in Wales and feels weird knowing that there is a record obviously about them, unless Brad from HEHFU has dated enough people for two-and-a-half years for the subject to be ambiguous. But I doubt that’s the case. The people who know HEHFU on a local level probably know that all these songs are about that one person they used to see Brad holding hands with at the pub or wherever. It’s probably not cool to sympathize with Brad’s ex, it sounds like she hurt him bad, but that must be a really alienating experience.
Regardless of my concern about Brad’s ex potentially being ostracized by the Welsh pop scene, this record does appeal to my weakness for dreampop. This is a pretty solid example of the genre in the 21st century. The band sounds like dudes who were unashamedly into Blink 182 in their teens and later got into records by the Field Mice and Another Sunny Day. Those bands have pretty stupid lyrics about heartbreak as well, so, really, the stuff I was complaining about is par for the course. Brad’s voice is also super mellow and relaxing despite all the negative vibes he is singing about.
If you like what the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have done, and aren’t Brad’s ex, you will probably dig this record. It’s angsty dreampop at its rawest and corniest that might help resolve some of your deeply held anxiety.
