Constantines

Tournament Of Hearts – (Three Gut)

The Constantines continuing fighting the good fight on Tournament Of Hearts, preaching in their fists-raised style and with their militant beat.  If you’re looking for anthems, Tournament Of Hearts is loaded with them.

And most of them have to do with working folk either literally or metaphorically, evident in titles like “Hotline Operator”, “Working Full-Time”, and “You Are A Conductor”.  As we’ve come to expect from the Constantines, they deliver with a relentless conviction where every line comes off as a revival tent shout (hence their immensely popular live shows).  They’re quite simply a band that we want to get behind.

The problem is, we’re three albums in now and the Constantines favour the same, yikes, constants (I’m sorry).  The drums continue to pound out slow and steady for the most part, vocalist Bryan Webb rarely ventures away from his standard shout, and their songs continue to use the same formula in creating melodrama with various starts and stops.  While one might argue that’s their “trademark” sound, it’s nevertheless pretty clear with tracks like the slow marching “Lizaveta” and the controlled rage of “Working Full-Time” that the  Constantines don’t have any intention of changing their formula, no matter how welcome the occasional diversion might be. “Soon Enough” with its folky rhythm, comes the closest to providing something a little different here.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Tournament Of Hearts in a “bad” record necessarily, but if you already have their debut and Shine A Light, there really isn’t anything you’d be missing out on here.