Parties Break Hearts

Life Is Too Short To Dance With Ugly People

Written by: PP on 03/02/2009 11:39:45

Swizerland's Parties Break Hearts is a brilliant example of the importance of choosing a good band name. It's instantly catchy with a very real message that the large majority of young people will be able to connect with (I did anyway); I wouldn't have checked these guys out at all if their name didn't sound as interesting as it does together with the funny album title "Life Is Too Short To Dance With Ugly People". These are both seldom quoted wisdoms of life with much truth to them if you give it some thought. Anyway, the name's not the only thing that's refreshing about Parties Break Hearts. Post-hardcore today sounds largely contrived and forced, as if the joy and passion for the music from the early days of the genre has disappeared in favor of pretentiousness, but somehow these guys are able to re-instate the same desperate yet optimistic vibe that bands like Funeral For A Friend had on their EPs and on their debut album - there's a considerable early 2000s post-hardcore feel omnipresent on the record, and it works because it's been absent for such a long time now.

Basically, "Life Is Too Short To Dance With Ugly People" sounds about exactly how you'd imagine the offspring of Boysetsfire and Funeral For A Friend to sound like if they were formed in mainland Europe instead. In other words, Parties Break Hearts play emotionally charged rock music with a scratched, somewhat smoky vocal delivery and occasional extortionate screams thrown in to add texture to the songs. The record's full of anthemic songs with huge choruses that aren't necessarily the biggest radio hits out there, but they make a lasting impression once they begin growing on you. There's some screaming involved on pretty much all songs, but it has been placed in just the right timings and is used infrequently enough to avoid it sounding like screaming for the sake of screaming. "Point Of View" or "Sober" are both excellent examples of how to use screaming to fortify a song without ruining it with unnecessary "rawhhhring" for "rawhhrrring"'s sake.

Throughout the record, there's a distinct European-feel to the music. "Dance, Dance Revolution", for instance, brings bands like Smokesuit and Disco Ensemble into mind because of the way vocalist Martin handles his clean vocals. His melodic clean singing is particularly noteworthy as he's able to convey so much emotion with seemingly so little effort that many emo bands should take note here. That being said, I wouldn't necessarily call the band an emo band more than they are a emotionally charged rock band, the same way as Funeral For A Friend wasn't really ever an emo band as much as they were a real rock band. Anyway, I think it's highly unlikely that Parties Break Hearts will make it big simply because of their location in Bern, Swizerland, and that's a great shame because with an album's worth of as great songs as presented here, these guys could really become another 'cult' band if they were located on the other side of the pond. Check out these guys and buy their record because it's one of the best post-hardcore records to come out of mainland Europe in recent years.

Download: Sober, Dance Dance Revolution
For the fans of: Funeral For A Friend, Boysetsfire, Boy Hits Car
Listen: Myspace

Release date 08.09.2008
Lockjaw Records

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