Album Review :: Gateway District :: Old Wild Hearts

Written by: Andrea Janov, CC2K Music Editor

Gateway District :: Old Wild Hearts out nw on It’s Alive Records

This album gets you right out of the gate. Their sound is robust, full, and loud and walks the line between rock n’ roll and punk (and a bit of horror-pop nuance and rockabilly sensibility). The music is hard hitting and the vocals fill up a room. You will be singing the melodies for days, they are catchy but never even go near the realm of pop-y.

Old Wild Hearts ebbs and flows through out, from fun to serious, the tracks each claim their own place on the record. The album starts with Go Home, a kick ass, high energy, get psyched track that will have you moving with the beat immediately. In Murakami the vocals are deeper and a bit more menacing and The Cut has a great play between lead and backing vocals. Speed Past has a great sing along chorus, a super interesting layered vocal section, and a beautiful deconstructed ending. Old Wild Hearts is a fairly straight forward track yet I am sure that it contains the soul of the album.

The music is so full of energy that it will get you pumped up, it is infections and will get you moving, you have no choice in the matter. Even the songs where the lyrics are a bit more bluesy, the beat never dips.

I can see these songs being performed in huge stadiums where sweat and hair is flying all over the pit and in small dive bars where the fans will be moving to more than the beat. Old Wild Hearts is Gateway District’s third full length and you can bet that I am currently finding those other two albums.