Half Hearted Hero “Defining. Refining.” CD

I feel like debut full-lengths are the majority of what I end up writing about here for some reason, and here's another one. "Defining. Refining." is the first full-length release from New Bedford, MA's Half Hearted Hero (from both Set Sail Records and Farewell Party Records), following a seven-song EP released in late-2007. I had never heard of this band before, but their guitarist sent me a link to some random mp3 blog out there (I can respect that) and asked me to check out the album. Honestly, I sort of thought I was losing interest in this form of super polished pop-punk, but I guess I just hadn't heard it done very well in awhile now. I know this won't be for everyone that reads this site, but I can be a huge sucker for this style, and I'm digging what these guys are doing. They've got a good balance happening between the slick production and overtly poppy catchiness of bands like Blink-182 and those badass little zippy pseudo metal riffs of bands like NOFX and Lagwagon (and I will take this time to re-confess that I still love Blink-182 and all my old NOFX and Lagwagon CD's). Combine that with lots of ripping drum fills, solid basslines, and sparse vocal harmonies (more vocal harmonies never hurts this kinda stuff, though), and I'm pretty well sold. They seem like a young band and have only been around for about four years, but I could see this band being pretty "huge" or whatever considering the strengths of their songwriting and the potentially "palatable" nature of their approach. I certainly don't fault them for that, though, 'cause they're clearly incredibly tight musicians, and anyone who's ever listened to this kind of stuff over the years would have to admit that there are some killer riffs happening here. Good stuff...

Half Hearted Hero "Something Missing"

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Set Sail Records