{"id":26143,"date":"2025-02-27T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=26143"},"modified":"2025-02-26T20:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T20:24:23","slug":"the-wildhearts-the-satanic-rites-of-the-wildhearts-snakefarm-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=26143","title":{"rendered":"The Wildhearts – \u2018The Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts\u2019 (Snakefarm Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The ongoing saga of The Wildhearts: round 2025. Love him or loathe him, you\u2019ve got to admire Ginger Wildheart for keepin\u2019 on keepin\u2019 on and delivering the goods. Whether it be under the guise of The Wildhearts or any of the solo\/side projects, over the years he has united, divided and sometimes ostracised his fan base. But one thing we can all agree on is that life as a Wildhearts fan has never been boring!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought The Wildhearts were over (again) after the messy \u201821st Century Love Songs\u2019 tour was done and dusted. By all accounts the other band members were done and not interested in doing another Wildhearts album. So, what does the main man do? He gets Jon Poole back on bass, former Main Grains\/Spangles man Ben Marsden on guitar and Bonafide singer Pontus Snibb on drums to make the best sounding Wildhearts album since, well since at least \u2018Chutzpah!\u2019 in my humble opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must admit, I didn\u2019t get the last Wildhearts album \u201821st Century Love Songs\u2019 at all. To me it sounds unfocused, a mash of second-hand ideas and ultimately the sound of a man going through the motions. The antithesis of a Wildhearts album for me. Maybe all his best moments HAD finally been used? I was expecting \u2019The Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts\u2019 to follow suit, and I am glad to report I was wrong\u2026very wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billed as spiritually and sonically a throwback to the 1993 debut album \u2018Earth Vs..\u2019 (check out the cover art), \u2018The Satanic Rites..\u2019 has all the hallmarks you want from a Wildhearts record, but in all honesty, it doesn\u2019t sound anything like that debut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Ginger going through a transitional period from negative to positive mindset, and the sonic influence of Jon Poole\u2019s bass playing, it sounds more like The Wildhearts circa 2003 or even the sprawling \u2018555%\u2019 triple solo album to these ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the purists saying it\u2019s not a Wildhearts album without CJ, Rich or Danny, check out the history books, dudes! Drummers, bass players and guitarists have come and gone, all great and all bring their own thing to The Wildhearts, but the catalyst has always been Ginger, and if he says it\u2019s a Wildhearts record then you best believe it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Eventually\u2019 opens proceedings with a wall of jarring, regimental riffs and acerbic, guttural vocals that build to a killer, instant chorus. Upbeat and euphoric, with proggy bass leanings and more twists and turns than a Tarantino movie, it comes on like a \u2018555%\u2019 lost outtake, in a good way. The crisp production from Jim Pinder just seems to accentuate the mash of melody and crunching guitars. Fabulous stuff indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Earth Vs\u2019 influence rears its head on next track \u2018Scared Of Glass\u2019, a sure-fire future live favourite. That riff and the ensuing instrumental madness brings to mind \u2018Everlone\u2019 and the euphoric \u201cwoah-woah\u201d build will lift your mood better than any drug could (maybe). Now that, my friends, is a bonafide Wildhearts song.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Troubadour Moon\u2019 is classic Wildhearts single fodder. Lyrically, it explores the dying breed of songwriters and travelling musicians we all fell in love with back in the day. Musically, it has one of those catchy, instant hooks that Ginger just seems to have in abundance, and leaves you wondering how you survived without it in your life. On first listen it sounded great to these ears. Now, in the context of the album it feels like revisiting an old friend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snotty and defiant \u2018Kunce\u2019 (read it again and laugh) is a middle finger to all naysayers. A 3-minute stab of punky, pop music to round off side 1 nicely. Just what the doctor ordered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dropping the virtual needle on side 2 and \u2018Maintain Radio Silence\u2019 is far from silent and not really radio friendly at all! A bile-spitting fest of a verse builds to a sonically seductive hook. There\u2019s plenty of tasty guitar work going on and it all sounds exciting and thoroughly exhilarating on the first few runs through. It\u2019s sure to be a grower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The urgent beats of \u2018Blue Moon Over Brinkburn\u2019 introduce another banger that harks back to the early solo albums in feel. With a chorus that will bury deep and all sorts of musical craziness going off on tangents, it\u2019s an album highlight for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This album is not all perfect though, several songs, while I certainly wouldn\u2019t call fillers, scream \u2018album track\u2019 if you know what I mean. \u2018Hurt People Hurt People\u2019 is the introspective and heartfelt curveball on the album that just seems to miss the mark, \u2018Fire in The Cheap Seats\u2019 sounds magnificent for the first minute but lacks that killer chorus, and \u2018I\u2019ll Be Your Monster\u2019 doesn\u2019t scare like its title suggests, although that crazy sax break was unexpected! Now, this could all change once the album beds in. Sometimes, my least favourite album tracks become winners in the end, that is the beauty of Ginger\u2019s songwriting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we come to the epic album closer \u2018Failure Is The Mother Of Success\u2019. One of those Ginger compositions that grows with each play. A brave choice for a first single, it gets better with each listen, and you notice more with each listen. The killer hook, the proggy breakdown and the euphoric time changes. A mash of song ideas that give that experimental juxtaposition we have come to love and expect. It comes on like a \u2018\u2026Destroyed\u2019 era b-side (and we all know how good they are!). The \u201cyou took a lot of knocks to get where you are today\u201d refrain leaves a lasting impression long after it has faded out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With \u2018The Satanic Rites\u2026\u2019 my faith in The Wildhearts has been restored. For me, it\u2019s a stronger and more focused album than the previous 2 releases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new Wildhearts album needs time to bed itself in, and while it\u2019s early days, I feel given time it\u2019s going to be up there in the discography with the best of \u2018em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moral of the story? Never give up on your heroes, as they need you as much as you need them and one day they may just surprise you when you least expect it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An (in)glorious return to form, buy or die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ongoing saga of The Wildhearts: round 2025. Love him or loathe him, you\u2019ve got to admire Ginger Wildheart for keepin\u2019 on keepin\u2019 on and delivering the goods. Whether it be under the guise of The Wildhearts or any of the solo\/side projects, over the years he has united, divided and sometimes ostracised his fan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[8752,226],"class_list":["post-26143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-snakefarm-records","tag-the-wildhearts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26145,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26143\/revisions\/26145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}