4 out of 5

Label: Africantape

Produced by: Peter Kernel

I realize that back in the day it was a common practice to release a single on its own, and then that same single would appear on an album, but as a modern(-ish) practice, outside of nostalgia appeal – why? It’s really not fair to knock this 7″ strictly for that reason (which is the reason), but it becomes an item that just sits on my shelf, replaced by the Peter Kernel album, where this song is the first track! Meaning, like, if you want your fix it’s the same effort to press play on the full length. So there’s literally zero reason to own this unless you’re a collector type – that’s me – or maybe you really only want one song from Peter Kernel? That means you’re crazy, though: you should want more.

Swiss popsters Aris Bassetti and Barbara Lehnoff combine for this confusingly named band, which has flexed to embrace various indie music methods of the times, but always representative of a bit of no wave quirk. That keeps ‘Anthem of Hearts’ punky core beating throughout, with Lehnoff doing a nice, eff-off vocalization (there’s a bit of early 00s NY rock in this – i.e. Yeah Yeah Yeahs) about things the group doesn’t care about it, before airier vocals give way to a powerful pop rock kick.

This is the kind of energy twee music wants to tap in to – feel good, emotive rock, but, y’know, without the twee; substitute quirk instead.

…And then buy the whole Peter Kernel album, dangit.