Search - Von Bondies :: Pawn Shoppe Heart

Very hooky, consistent album

Notthatsocial | Terre Haute, IN USA | 08/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Von Bondies' major label debut is just stunningly catchy. From the chorus that opens "No Regrets" to the bended power chord held for 10 seconds at the end of "Pawn Shoppe Heart", it's a very consistent album, and while The Stripes have the ability to amaze so much more in just a single song (probably why they are more famous), when it comes to making their albums, everything was just so inconsistent and random that you really wondered whether they just had the songs on the album in the order they were able to think of them (their most recent effort Icky Thump has resolved that problem a great deal, but it's still there).



Stollsteimer knows his songwriting strength and clearly shows it on this album; anthemic pentatonic scale rockers. This format sounds so familiar yet isn't executed similarly enough to another band to yield any genuine comparisons (The Stripes aren't really that similar to them at all). The rhythm section is going wild (Don Blum really is an excellent drummer), the guitars are raging, and while the vocals are largely devoid of melody, they do a really good job of masking that aspect by using different tones of voice (I can't say the girls on the album really do that as much as Stollsteimer, but they got more melodic roles in the songs they were involved in anyway).



My biggest complaint with this album was probably that their formula is just a bit overused, though that really doesn't discredit the album much at all, because it's such a winning formula the band's invented. I really have gotten hooked on so many songs in this collection that it's hard to imagine it being much better.



Best songs:

Mairead

Broken Man

Tell Me What You See

Pawn Shoppe Heart



Weakest songs:

Not That Social

Poison Ivy

Been Swank"

Pawn Shoppe Heart

Morton | Colorado | 06/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Von Bondies-Pawn Shoppe Heart ****1/2



I remember the first time I heard Pawn Shoppe Heart, it was the most pure, honest, best rock n' roll album I had heard in the last, well I don't know how many years but it had been a long time.



Straight out of Detroit and it shows. A city known for it's blistering rock n' roll with the likes of The Stooges, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, and The MC5, The Von Bondies are no exception.



'No Regrets' opens the album and is about as rock n' roll as you can get. 'Broken Man' is powerful and angst fueled, while 'Not That Social' shows a little vulnerability as does 'Mairead' with it's haunting vocal exercises. 'Crawl Through The Darkness' is basically better than anything to come along since 2000.



Now 'C'mon C'mon' which some might know as the theme song to the show Rescue Me don't realise how perfect the song is. It is the embodiment of rock n' roll, and easily THE best song to come along maybe since The Pixies 'Where Is My Mind.'



Is this worth owning, yes, it is a must own in fact. The Von Bondies are one of the better bands around today and Pawn Shoppe Heart is their very best album, hands down."