Leerone :: Heart Shaped Bullets

Nancy Sinatra meets up with Mick Jagger in a darkened, smoky bar and they trade boots under the table, and knock them around in the corner of the red leather booth, too. In another corner of the room sits PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, reunited as lovers, and David Lynch comes on over with a microphone and camera, asking them to sing for him. In the same bar Tori Amos is playing piano, singing standards and seducing the keys and pedals while Jack White pours another shot of whiskey. Can you close your eyes and imagine such a place, and what kind of sounds would echo off its walls?

The new album from Leerone, Heart Shaped Bullets, could give you one hell of a good indication of what that kind of bar room musical orgy would sound like.

I am completely taken by this album, as I sit here on my third start to finish listen trying to choose which song is my initial favorite, each one fighting for favor, and each one earning my attention. I want to sit in a bar, right now, order a whiskey on the rocks, call all my music loving friends to join me, and have the bartender set this album on repeat for us, as we drink, listen, connect and carouse.

Push comes to shove, and without a bottle in front of me I persist in the listening and the choosing. For now, my initial favorite is the sultry, rocking Cherry Red. This is power pop with a fifties throwback vibe to it. I am reminded of Pinky Tuscedaro from TV’s Happy Days, the girl with the motorcycle and pink leather jacket that caught the attention of the Fonz, but also caught my attention. I remember wanting to grow up to be as cool as she was. I also cannot help but think of my favorite shade of lipstick to wear, a must have whenever I put on make-up, also called “Cherry Red”.

Turning Cherry Red up I cannot help but think that it would sound rather keen mashed up with Garbage’s Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go).

Trouble is lush and gorgeous and that right kind of torch song tragic that is utterly impossible to shake. It harkens the way a past love’s arm felt around my waist, as we danced on a bed of sawdust and peanut shells at a roadside dive bar. I kept a pack of matches from the place, it had the sketch of a mermaid and was missing the two matches we used before he kissed me goodbye. The song has that never meant to be kind of feeling to it, so full of longing and wistful desire.

Suzanne is the ultimate girl crush song. The girl you meet who is vibrant, painted in a million colors, and who captivates you despite your intentions, procalivity or sheer will. You keep looking her way, blushing at your own thoughts, imagining what you would do if you were the man sitting across from her; the man who will be taking her home.

Overall, Heart Shaped Bullets is fatal, in that deliciously desirous way that only clandestine affairs and unrequited love can bring. This is the hottest album I have heard yet this year, and well worth multiple, repeated play.

Pour yourself a drink and listen for yourself here where you can stream the entire album and also download Leerone’s companion cover collection for the small price of signing-up for her mailing list.

As a bonus, have a listen and watch a colorful collection of witches as Leerone covers Donovan’s Season of the Witch: