A large percentage of the garage rock movement of the '60s came about when teenagers looking for kicks heard
the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones and thought, "Hey, why not do something like that?" Similarly,
the Empty Hearts are a band featuring four guys with decades of musical experience who were presumably listening to their old British Invasion singles and collectively said, "Hey, why not do something like that?" Featuring
Wally Palmar of
the Romantics on lead vocal and rhythm guitar,
Elliot Easton of
the Cars on lead guitar,
Clem Burke of
Blondie on drums, and
Andy Babiuk of
the Chesterfield Kings on bass,
the Empty Hearts are players mature enough to remember this stuff when it was happening the first time (though just a bit young to be actually playing in bands at the time), and on their debut album, they clearly think the British Invasion and garage rock classics of the '60s are still pretty danged cool -- and who's to say they're wrong?
The Empty Hearts proudly wear their influences on their sleeves, and they've got the chops to pull them off, especially
Easton, who with gutsy effortlessness mimics the style of pretty much any mid-'60s guitar hero you can name, and
Burke, who can still wallop with the impact of
Keith Moon and the timing of
Charlie Watts. While
Babiuk has made a career out of this sort of thing with
the Chesterfield Kings, the other
Empty Hearts are used to paying homage to their roots in more roundabout ways, and on this album they seem to be having a blast making like the guys who first turned their heads around. The results are inarguably infectious -- especially "Soul Deep," which borrows from
the Kinks and
the Who at the same time, the
Jimmy Page lifts in "Loud and Clear," and "Perfect World," which arguably does
the Standells better than
the Standells ever did (with
Paul Revere & the Raiders for a chaser). No one is reinventing the wheel on
The Empty Hearts, and these guys are smart enough to know it -- they're just having a good time playing some tough, swaggering rock & roll that's also a lot of fun and a look back at their younger days as fans, and if you have any taste for this era of music, this will give you a big ol' grin and make you wanna move, and there's nothing wrong with that. ~ Mark Deming
![Every Open Eye [Deluxe Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0810599020972_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Every Open Eye [Deluxe Edition]")
