| Artist |
| Ayria |
| Title |
| Hearts For Bullets |
| Format/Cat |
| CD AM1108CD |
| Label |
| Alfa Matrix |
| Style |
| Hard-edged electro |
| Date of review |
| March 2009 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 8.5/10 |
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With its bright pink cover this is one album you're certainly not going to miss but while the bright colours might catch your eye the music is more than capable of catching your ear & your imagination. Aided by Seb Komor (who even plays guitar on a couple of tracks!) & one or two other partners in crime, Jennifer Parkin has put together her most confident & mature release to date, boasting a whole host of constantly infectious & exciting songs that grab your attention from the word go & which pack a whole host of emotions & feelings. From the no-nonsense duo of the opening 'Bad List' & 'The Gun Song' with its no-nonsense delivery emphasising the poignant & sadly all too topical lyrics, through to the sadness of 'Invisible', where the slightly less-than-perfect vocal performance actually adds to the vulnerable feeling that provides a strartling contrast to the catchy synthpop elements, it's a constantly engaging release. The equally poppy closer 'Girl On The Floor' even bears a resemblance to Gwen Stefani's What you Waiting For in the backing & there's no reason why it shouldn't prove just as popular. Throughout, the vocals emphasise the music's potential as Parkin displays a new level of confidence, maturity & versatility (in fact, I did wonder if the spoken parts crossed the line into rap once or twice? If so she's one of the few white people who can!). In fact there's not a bad track to be found here with 'Analog Trash' proving to be both funky & quite touching while the dancefloor fillers come in the shape of the no-prisoner-taking 'Six Seconds' & the stomping '1000 Transmissions', where the strong IOC similarity suggests that Komor's contribution was an all-important one. Likewise, the importance of Joe 'vOLD' Byers' guitar work in making 'My Poison' the dark & grinding piece of industrial rock excellence that it is & Jeremy Pfohl's composing of the muscular & dynamic 'Blue Alice' cannot be underestimated as both are among the finest tracks on the album. It's probably fair to say, then, that this is very much a team effort but whichever way you look at it it's a superb album that you'd be foolish to miss out on.
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