Giant Drag - Hearts And Unicorns

Giant Drag - Hearts And Unicorns / 2005 Kickball / 12 Tracks / http://www.giantdrag.com / http://www.kickballrecords.com / Reviewed 31 August 2005

“Kevin Is Gay” is a very weak step for Giant Drag. First off, the track relies on the presence of a much-too-repeated guitar riff for its main focus, and the meowing that ends the track just seems out of place compared to tracks like the follow-up “Cordial Invitation”. “Cordial Invitation” is the first in a long string of indie-rock tracks that Giant Drag allow their “Hearts And Unicorns” to be dominated with. For “This Isn’t It”, Giant Drag tie together The Donnas, L7, and Bif Naked to make a current-sounding, radio-friendly brand of music.

What really comes back to haunt Giant Drag at more than one place on “Hearts And Unicorns” has to be the continual repetition that first was noticed on “Kevin Is Gay”, but really makes its appearance during “YFLMD” and even continues through the opening of “Pretty Little Neighbor”. “Pretty Neighbor” seems to be nothing more than an increased-distortion version of a “Spend The Night”-era Donnas track. Just placing distortion on the track does nothing to really mask the fact that the music on the track is virtually the same as the tracks that surround it. By far, the biggest stumbling block that Giant Drag create for themselves comes in the entirety of “High Friends In Places”. The brain-dead paucity of chords that compromise the beat of the track progress only the slightest bit when the vocals bring a different harmony to the track.

The sad thing about “High Friends In Places” is that even with these crippling flaws, it may be Giant Drag’s only chance to make it big (as it does has a workable groove in the aforementioned vocal hooks). “Everything’s Worse” is the perfect title for the latter part of “Hearts And Unicorns”, and the strung-out arrangements present on the track really gives Giant Drag a unprofessional, half-hearted feel. The shrill tones that are achieved by the vocals on “My Dick Sux” vie for the most annoying award on this antepenultimate track. By the time that the disc slows to a halt, one wonders if there is enough time for Giant Drag to get rid of this giant drag and completely go back to the drawing board. There is a glimmer of hope in the slower tempo of “Smashing”, but Giant Drag again falls victim to their uninspired and repetitious arrangements. Here’s to hoping that Giant Drag can do something with their next album that expounds on the few positives of “Hearts and Unicorns”.

Top Tracks: Smashing, Slayer

Rating: 2.9/10