The Loop: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak (2003)

There are a lot of things I missed out on having been born in the mid '80's. While I've taken bits and pieces of prior years music-wise, I have a very vague understanding of some of the artists that influenced my current favorites. It's something that has always bugged me about myself, and led to some pretty poor showings at Music Trivia Mondays at Piano's.

However, I can feel their influence within the context of some of my favorite records, including Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Hearts of Oak. This was a huge departure for me at the time as I was knee deep in ska music and bands like MxPx and The Ataris. Ted Leo had a tone of maturity in comparison, not only lyrically and with his fan base, but by the incredible mish-mash of different genres he laced through each track. It was an easier transition than most "grown up" albums I tried, namely because he had an entire song called "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?", which immediately won over my suburban pseudo-rude girl heart. Upon taking a closer listen, his use of upstrokes amidst heavy punk rock melodies made that connection for me who up to that point had only really heard things in three-chords. Ted clearly took notes through years of punk rock high school, drawing influence from The Who, My Bloody Valentine and The Clash. His trademark though, is the insanely high falsetto tone he dives into, often loudly (which later led to having to have vocal rest/surgery . . . always train your voice, friends!)

As the years progressed, I started to pick up on his many political undertones, those of which I can't be blamed for not understanding when I was 16. He's been more and more outspoken about it through the years, but I appreciated the almost satirical tone many of his lyrics had, even if I had no idea what he was referencing. He was unapologetic about what he cared about and that struck a cord with me regardless of if I agreed.

This is (yet another) front to back kind of album, starting with a timpani roll intro and a minute or so song leading into "Where Have All . . . ". It's impossible to sandwich the final track, "The Crane Takes Flight"in the middle of a shuffle as the string outro is downright chilling and final. In investigating his catalog, this album seems to be a step up in production and set the tone for his later albums, all of which were less of a punk rock mess and more to the point both musically and lyrically. However, I highly (highly) recommend picking up his previous album, The Tyranny of Distance as well as the 2004 follow up, Shake the Sheets.

I feel like I very much graduated to listening to Ted Leo, and he ended up setting the bar for a lot of the artists I came across later on. His benchmark has made him a cult favorite and one that will clearly been on lists of influences for many bands to come.