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Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring: A Question of Trust
Uplifting, beautiful pop for the disillusioned and faint hearted. It's hard to really say any more than that. THWFOS are a great big, crazy happy band and A Question of trust is a great example of their craft.
Renowned for unpredictable live shows, eclectic tastes and an advanced opposition to the mainstream culture of mediocrity, this band demands to be looked out for and listened to. So best you do!
http://www.matchboxrecordings.co.uk/artists/stayinthebox.htm - Stay In The Box
Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring emanate romance like a summer rose, their shaven-haired, white-jacketed, Morrisey-esque front-man singing from behind his flower-strewn microphone with glorious languor.
Handclaps, violin lines and tambourines shake, the whole Hearts sound ebbs with a blinding orchestral grace, and one particular track has a three-part vocal harmony to absolutely die for. Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring are the real package, and this fact is more than enough reason to spell their name out in full one last time.
http://festivals.musicomh.com/swn-2007-2_1107.htm - MusicOMH.com
Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring ... sound like a celestial being sprinkled fairy dust on them. With their Orange Juice, Josef K and The Fire Engines inflected young pop the six piece from the capital city sound like a sampler from 80's Scottish label Postcard and are bust creating the Sound Of Young London.
Lead singer Markus looks like a cross between Sice from the The Boo Radleysand Uncle Fester but sounds like the young Edwyn Collins. If the UK suddenly had an epidemic of good taste then THWFOS will be your new favourite band.
- The Devil Has The Best Tuna Music Blog
There is something intrinsically positive about their music. I don't mean that in a weird, dopey way, I mean it in the way that the sun is bright and flowers are pretty. They're hearty yet delicate, using classical influences in modern contexts. All the little chimes and strings create a lovely and slightly refined sound. THWFOS tings, flutters, sparkles, dances, and shimmers subtle, quite beauty. The best example is "Instrumental 1," an airy two or so minutes that just radiate tranquility.
In case you are thinking they are some merry band of fairies, sprinkling pixie dust in their wake, that's not what I'm getting at. THWFOS is most definitely pop (orch pop, most accurately), but it's pop with a brain and more importantly, a soul. "A Question of Trust" is their anti-Tony Blair anthem, a really well-constructed song on all fronts that not only warns of getting swept up in politicians, but laments getting suckered in the first place. Obviously, by the time Blair left office he was wrecked in many ways, but THWFOS isn't bitter about it. They are elegant, peaceful yet opinionated, backed by handclaps and "ahhhs." ...
I've read about their live shows, flowers taped to mic stands and ecleticism all around. They seem like they would be sensational. I don't know if I ever will see them live though. You see, they don't have a label, or even an LP. Sadness.
So, what I am saying to you is this, check these folks out. You won't be sorry and you've got to know that Jane Approximately doesn't put her hand in the fire for just anyone.
Besides, we could all use a little more pretty in our lives.
http://themusicallyinclined.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-favourite-band-their-hearts-were.html - The Musically Inclined
Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring - Winterlong (God Is In The TV)
Some of you might remember The Pixies doing a rather good version of this Neil Young track some years ago. Well this version is better - totally beautiful if it comes to an argument - and comes to you absolutely free courtesy of those nice people who refer to themselves as God Is In The TV.
Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring come from that little backwater called London and if you pop over to their website there are quite a few tracks you can have a listen to.
This track along with another called "White Winter Hymnal" will be available from the God Is In The TV Zine website from 15th December 2008.
http://artrocker.com/node/5752 - Artrocker
Discography
• "A Question of Trust" [single]: July 2007, featured on BBC6's 'Introducing...' radio show and various indie radio stations such as Radio Nowhere and Earwax (UK), Radionova Al Aire (Mexico), and WRIR (Richmond, USA). TV Eye Records [Germany].
• "New Favourite Band" [split-single with SAY from Northern Star Records]: Sept 2008, Northern Star Records [UK].
• 'Seasons Project'; four singles on Strange Torpedo Records/// [UK], with free digital download from godisinthetvzine.co.uk.
"Winter", December 2008. Approx. download figures Dec 08 - March 09: 7,000.
"Spring", April 2009. Approx. download figures April - June 09: 4,200.
"Summer" scheduled for Aug 09.
"Autumn" scheduled for Oct 09.
--> Tracks featured on 'Psychedelica' Vols. 1, 2 and 3, from Northern Star Records (2006-2008).
--> Full-length album "How I Wasted My Youth", August 2009, Marketstall Records [UK].
Photos
Bio
Some Essential Facts About Their Hearts Were Full of Spring:
1. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring are Markus, Matth, Vicky, Maeve, Emmet, Ian and Steve.
2. Some of us are boys and some are girls. This has no bearing on which of us wear the dresses and the make-up.
3. We are named after a song written by Bobby Troup. He also wrote ‘Get Your Kicks (On Route 66)’ which as a band name would be less convincing.
4. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring are not twee. You’re twee.
5. Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens and Tom Robinson all like us and have played our songs on their radio shows.
6. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring can’t decide if they’re “classic” or “experimental” when it comes to their pop music. Then we remember that we don’t have to decide, and keep doing both.
7. Frequently, in a live setting, we collaborate with film-makers (such as Hilary Flamingo and Buzzard Buzzard) by erecting a screen behind ourselves for visuals. We don’t know if it looks any good because we’re always facing the wrong way.
8. We once sang a song to a hive of bees on top of the Royal Festival Hall in London. As soon as we left the bees swarmed and half of them formed a new hive of their own and never came back. We’ve since been written into their holy books as some kind of 28-limbed Moses figure. Stupid bees.
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In their first two years together, THWFoS have performed at Latitude, Swn, The Big Chill, Indietracks and Truck festivals, headlined at London venues such as The Fly, Barden's Boudoir and Notting Hill Arts Club, and were handpicked to play at this year's London Short Film Festival.
Their debut album, 'How I Wasted My Youth', will be released on the 10th August 2009 on boutique label Marketstall Records , followed by a string of tour dates in the UK and elsewhere. An early review from God Is In The TV Zine hails it as "an album of delicately shaded dark and light from a band intent on creating their own virtual musical world ... a widescreen stretch of pop landscape".
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