Album Review: Headlights - Kill Them With Kindness

[Jack of Arcades]

Originally posted at my blog

Headlights (no The) are a trio from Champaign, Illinois signed to Polyvinyl records. They utilize the vocals of both Erin Fein (female) and Tristan Wraight (male). The split duties in vocals draw immediate comparisons to The Stars and fellow Polyvinyl band Mates of State. As in both of these groups, the female's the star. Fein's voice isn't going to draw any comparisons to Amy Milan, though; Fein sings everything with a bit of boredom, and comes across sounding like Eleanor Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces. While Fein gets the glory, however, Wraight more than holds his own. In fact, his piano-driven "Lullabies" might just be the best track on the record.

Headlights' Myspace page describes the band as "indie pop with a bit of shoegazing." The phrase pegs them pretty well, but seven words can't capture the sound at all. Headlights have two gears: a solemn, minimalistic first gear, along with a dangerously catchy second gear. Not only do the band perform both styles spectacularly, they effortlessly shift between them - often in the same song. It's as though the music is a wild animal they capture and release repeatedly on one track. This is no more evident than on their opening track "On Your Street," which switches gears 6 times in as many minutes.

On a more superficial level, certain tracks, such as "On Your Street," and "TV," immediately call to mind The Stars once more. This is nowhere close to a bad thing, as "Set Yourself on Fire" ranks as one of the best albums of 2004.

Kill Them With Kindness is 14-tracks long, with 3 instrumental interludes. Of the 11 songs, about 4 of them are asolutely brilliant, and another 5 fall just below that. The album peaks twice (Track 2, "TV," and Track 9, "Lullabies") and stays consistent the whole way through. The album has quickly shot up among the year's best, and holds its own with the best albums of 2005.

Rating: 9.0/10
Download: TV [headlightsmusic.com]

[Soul Daddy]

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I haven't listened to anything but the linked track, but this is pretty awesome and deserves more attention. The Stars comparison is dead-on, and it came to mind immediately, which was before I read this review and could be influenced by JoA's prose. I'm really looking forward to illegally downloading this, but porn is the current priority.