Media Credit: Courtesy of Blue Skies for Black Hearts Blue Skies for Black Hearts' new album, Serenades and Hand Grenades, features well-produced tracks.

Blue Skies for Black Hearts

Serenades and Hand Grenades

You'll like it if you like: The Beatles, solo John Lennon

Attention all public relations majors: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that you are majoring in PR. If you graduate from UT, get a job and then send me a press release similar to the one received for this week's album, however, I will slander your name to everyone I know. That sounds unethical, I know, but I'm willing to risk it.

Why the harsh reaction you ask? Let's see. In a measly 289 words, the release for Serenades and Hand Grenades, the newest album from poppers Blue Skies for Black Hearts, there were an astounding 14 exclamation points, as well as an attempt at legitimately using "YIPPIE." The purpose of PR is to spread the word about what you're promoting, but the resulting e-mail came across like a giddy 15-year-old who just met New Kids on the Block. Who wants to listen to New Kids on Block?

But, being the dedicated music journalist that I am, I fired up the tunes and ventured into the world of overused punctuation. The first thing that jumped out at me when the opener, "Siouxsie Please Come Home," started up was how much I was reminded of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. There was just something about the instrumentation in that opening track that took me to back to the days of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson. The thing is, as I kept listening, I realized that those similarities are deceptive. It's as if the hints of those artists are there but not there, continuously ducking in and out of the music, apparent and then not apparent, identifiable and then absent. It kind of freaked me out.

As time went on, though, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the album, bobbing my head, immediately grasping hooks and vocal melodies and singing along, and thanking the sweet Lord above that I didn't have to suffer through yet another awful album this week. I wouldn't necessarily call Serenades and Hand Grenades a classic or a masterpiece, but it's well written and well produced. Nowadays, that's nearly half the battle.

So for the first time in this column's young history, I'm actually recommending to you an album. It doesn't drop until May 20, but the band is playing at SXSW and there may or may not be a "secret press page" that I may or may not give you the address of depending on if I like you or not. Ladies and gentlemen, we are finally on our way to finding that undiscovered band that we can all claim we knew about before anyone else. Screw MTV, you heard it at UT first.

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