Heartless Bastards - The Mountain

Fat Possum
Published March 5, 2009  by Jason Lewis in Record Reviews

Change is a good thing, and that’s certainly true in the case of the third full-length by Heartless Bastards. The Mountain sees frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom rebuild the Bastards from the ground up. She moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Austin, Texas, changed the lineup and added an array of new instruments to make her most thoughtful record yet. Up until now, the Bastards have been a brazen rock outfit with raw, wall-of-sound riffs to support Wennerstrom’s take-no-prisoners howl. That intensity is maintained on “Early in the Morning,” but the rest of the album is considerably more subdued. The aching dirge of the title track introduces lap-steel into the mix, “Could Be So Happy” works with loping acoustic rhythms and “Had to Go” offers haunting banjo and violin. Wennerstrom may rely too heavily on repetitive hypnotic rhythm, but The Mountain has no problem reaching the heights set by the band’s previous albums.



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