The Heavy Heavy

One Liner: Retro soul-tinged rock and roll perfection
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - rock, soul
Home: London

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 17
Day: Saturday
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  I think I was conflating this with the Brand New Heavies.  Remember them?  Like, sort of rap, sort of jazz, sort of funk.  This ain't that - this is a duo doing soul-tinged rock and roll that sounds like something from 50 years ago.  Oh, and a cover of Father John Misty that sounds pretty true to the real thing.  This stuff sounds impeccable.

Did you know that there is another band called Heavy Heavy Low Low that is apparently mathcore?  And that a Scottish indie group called Young Fathers released an album called Heavy Heavy in 2023.  The Madness greatest hits album was called The Heavy Heavy Hits.  As I think you can tell from that recitation, this band is not listed in Wikipedia.

Well, just kidding about it being a duo.  Even though all of the photos are of a curly-haired lady with a curly-haired dude, this is apparently a five-piece band.  I am guessing those are the co-founders Georgie Fuller and William Turner.  Band was formed in 2019, the band mates met and lived together in a London flat while they started dreaming about the band.  Turner was from a small town and played in a handful of psych-rock bands, and Fuller is a classically trained singer who has acted in London theater.  This has that throwback vibe going in spades, and it sounds rad as hell.

One EP, 2022's Life and Life Only, and then one album, 2024's One of a Kind.  Their bio on their website makes it sound like they are super different from each other, but I don't guess I really notice.  Maybe the new stuff is a little smoother and the old a little rawer?  Both sound very retro cool.  Biggest streamer for sure is the second track from the EP.  "Go Down River" has 10.8 million streams.

Just smooth and chill as you can get.  Sounds like COVID shut the band down right as it was getting on its feet, and so once that was over they were finally able to get some live shows going and found some interest.  Their voices sound supremely good together.  On the full disc, I was kind of hoping that "Miracle Sun" was the big track, because that one grabbed my attention both times I ran through the album.  "Everything" is kinda dope too, a little Allman/jam-band-ish with the guitars.  But it is "Happiness" instead - 1.5 million streams.

Yeah, if you told me that was a track from 1970, I would absolutely buy it.  Perfectly spot-on classic vibes.  Vocal harmonies for days.  All in.  I'm moving this album into the new music queue so that I write a proper review of it after all of this is over, and so that I can save it in the mega playlist of good stuff.

Still grooving it after the weekend.  This album is classic.