Review of the new Bleeding Hearts CD!

Raleigh's Bleeding Hearts may have been "Stayin' After Class" on their debut CD, but their newest release finds them graduated and all grown up to a more mature, but still rockin', sound. That's not to say they've abandoned their angst-ridden, 70's style riff rock, with hooks so big you want to hold up your Pabst Blue Ribbon and scream "hell yeah" from the very first note. Musically "Nothin' On but the Radio," would fit right into any music collection where "Cheap Trick at Budokan," "KISS Alive" "Highway to Hell" are favored discs. Listen carefully and you'll hear a little .38 Special sneak into guitarist Joe Yerry's riffage. And you'll definitely hear plenty of musical references to North Carolina's own semi-forgotten '70s pop-rock geniuses Nantucket. But while the debut spent a lot of lyrical time dwelling on the good times and excitement of youth, the latest CD explores what happens the morning after, when the party's over, you're all alone and the good time girl who broke your heart is headed off to rehab. On "In a bad place," singer-guitarist Sam Madison sings about wanting so bad to work it out but his lover can't because she's "in a bad place right now." When he gets the ultimate "I love you like a brother" rejection" on "It Hurts," all he can do is scream the title over and over again until his voice is raw, like a kid who just can't believe he's not going to get what he wants. Maybe The Bleeding Hearts' Young, Loud and Snotty attitude hasn't grown up that much after all!