Constantines

"Hard Feelings"

BY Cam LindsayPublished Jan 11, 2008

They may have released Tournament of Hearts just over two years ago, but as a Cons fan, I gotta say it feels like a lifetime since I’ve heard new recorded music from Toronto’s hardest working band™. After the teary demise of their first’n’faithful label Three Gut and a split from Sub Pop (their label in those other countries), the boys fell on their feet like a perfect dismount by, I dunno, Mary Lou Retton? No, no, Nadia Comeneci! Yes, they have the poise of Russia’s little 1976 champ. Where was I? Yes, they emerged with an Arts & Crafts deal that couldn’t feel any more suitable. A new, yet-to-be-titled album has been confirmed for April 15 (get your hard hats on!) - the behind-the-scenes sessions and tomfoolery of which can be watched below – but to get the early word out on the street about their return, the Cons have prepped a nice white vinyl seven-inch (b/w "Easy Money") - their very first in their nine years - for release on January 15.

I know there are some confused people out there who were less than besotted with the band’s last effort, 2005’s Tournament of Hearts (listen again people of Toronto!), but whatever unfound reasons they had should, no, will be eradicated by this first representative of the new album. "Hard Feelings” is the wild, brawling blast of blue-collared rock’n’roll we’d want from a Constantines single. Everything converges into one rollicking good time, setting the stage for plenty of Drummer Doug MacGregor’s steady stomp shores up the boisterous guitar interplay between Steve Lambke and Bry Webb (whose vocal gruff delivers that demanding titular chorus with the passion of the best evangelical speakers), which reaches a face-melting pinnacle at the 2:25 mark with a solo they must have written with former label-mates Comets On Fire during a Sub Pop showcase somewhere, some time.

Buy the seven-inch here.





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