MUSIC REVIEW: Cannons - Heartbeat Highway

I started off feeling inspired to write in the beginning of the day and looked forward to writing when I got home...and now I can't figure out what the fuck I wanted to talk about.

AH YES I will REVIEW the CANNONS Album... HEARTBEAT HIGHWAY

Some background about my history with this band...I got REALLY into this band back in April of 2022 and then had the pleasure of seeing them live in September 2022 with one of my best friends. Seeing them live has become a core memory of mine and it has been one of my best live show experiences I've ever had. I remember I was a little hesitant attending because it was my first live show since before the COVID19 pandemic started. My buddy and I got high as fuck and we stopped caring so much; that probably added to the experience heh.

I've been obsessed with this band after listening to the Fever Dream album in its entirety. I'm proud to say they became the most listened artist of my Spotify/Last.fm for 2022.

Lets now fast forward to 2023 to witness the next evolution of this vibey retro-modern band :)

Hues of pink, purple, and amber are some of the colors that you can see when you close your eyes to listen to this album. It's golden hour on a lukewarm weekday night in California and you're cruising in a classic convertible with someone you're interested in with no traffic to the nearest empty beach. You're young, optimistic, and excited hell to see where this possible romance leads. That's Heartbeat Highway, period.

This album definitely leans more bright and happy as opposed to their earlier releases. Cannons by no means is a dark, moody band but Heartbeat Highway seems to me like a light departure from some of the slower psychedelic undertones I've felt across Shadows (2019), or Night Drive (2017).

My absolute favorite song in this entire album is Can You Feel My Heart. It's very rare that in the first couple seconds of a song I instantly get some HEAVY ENDORPHIN CHILLS. I'm not sure what it is about this song or what it reminds me of, but its the one I keep coming back to. When that Pre-Chorus hits, ooghgh fuck, I just feel like I'm being held tightly in gentle arms of this song.

[Pre-Chorus]
Now I sit here watching the stars burn without you
Hand on my heart, think about you all night
Searching for love to hold onto
I just can't go on without you, baby
--taken from genius.com--

I particularly enjoyed Crush – I find the chorus a little redundant...and maybe a little annoying but man, that bridge that comes on more than half way through the song gives me a stiff --gasm into rigor mortis.

Metal Heart – my wife and I happened to vibe to this one, I also feel like this track might be the only one with a heavier feel in all of the album. We don't typically agree on a lot of music so it was nice to share this one with someone whose taste isn't in alignment with mine.

I can't forget to mention Loving You as one my favorites, the only problem is that I've overplayed this song from my library so much that I might literally be tired of hearing it. The whistles in the background put me into a cross-faded movie soundtrack of a spaghetti western and modern discotheque.

This album undoubtedly has all the Cannons DNA that we love. It's not groundbreaking, it doesn't really push outside their comfort zone and that's perfectly okay. I'm still chasing that high I got from Purple Sun and Talk Talk...I earnestly look forward to new releases and maybe someday I hope to interview them and write about it :) That would be a dream come true.

Three songs from this album added to my Spotify library and preordered the vinyl. Verdict? Pretty good!