These Hearts-Yours To Take

Victory Records
2013

Pop-punk meets hardcore?  That seems to be the case for Fargo, North Dakota-based These Hearts. Granted the hardcore aspect does make them perfectly suited to be with Victory Records, as all of their bands seem to be hardcore + something, but pop-punk? Yeah, it's odd. The group, which consists of Ryan Saunders on vocals, Daryl Van on lead guitar, Kyle Colby on guitar and backup vocals, Tyler Rice on bass and Isaiah Folk on the drums, are not exactly new to the scene as they were formed back in 2007. And then there's the fact that "Yours To Take" isn't their first trip into the studio. So, what are we to make of them then? Well, first off this is a Christian act although, given the mix of clean singing and hardcore-tinged gruff vocals, it's not like it's easy to follow along with these guys lyric-wise. While their faith is important to them it's not likely to be the deciding factor on whether or not a person is into this kind of groove scene. If it is a factor because you're a Christian then cool, but if one were to automatically write them off because of their faith then that would be lame. Musically that's were it's a with this bunch and, even if I find it really weird to think that this bunch seems as influenced by Blink 182, New Found Glory and Green Day as much as acts like Black Flag, Gang Green, Cro-Mags and the short (as well as potentially Christian hardcore act The Lead), I'm kind of digging what these guys are doing. Make no mistakes about it I'm burned on the op-punk aspect to folks. Sure, I listened to Bad Religion and Social Distortion to (still do) and even had, at one point in my younger days, discs by the pop-punker version of Green Day and Blink 182 (hey, it was about as punk as I could get with my ex wife and still have her listen to it so....), but I like what these guys are about and "Yours To Take" is actually an easy disc to get caught up in. So, pop-punk meets hardcore then? Yeah, I guess I can get down with that....