Lovers Lane
In The Flesh

Metal Hearts CD Review

| March 1, 2006

Metal Hearts
Socialize
(Suicide Squeeze)

Adversarial Baltimore duo add a new dimension to the co-ed sweepstakes.

The lullabyish melody of “Airplanes Flying” aside, Socialize is anything but sociable, a tense and unhappy chaingang march with its teeth gnawing its inner cheek. Anar Badalov and Flora Wolpert-Checknoff take Mates Of State and drown them in a murky bath, using the crawl-space ambience of this recording to create interpersonal pressure. “Gentleman’s Spell” pulls the skin back on courtship mindgames, sour piano chords pull the shades on “Sunray,” and the title track would give anything to be alone. Life of the party these two are not; Socialize is for that night you lie to everyone and stay in.

6

— Steve Forstneger

Appearing: March 10th at Courtyard Cafe in Urbana.

Category: Spins, Weekly

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