Nearly a year after the last fine Cinema Hearts EP, Caroline Weinroth is back with a new set of smart pop. I Want You, this latest offering produced by Don Godwin (Flasher, Priests), is uniformly superb.
"Fender Factory" is exactly how to make smart indie-rock. With a lyrical turn like the classic stuff from The Pipettes, and a rough hook like Liz Phair at her best, this one is punchy and clever. While "I Want You (But I Don't Need You)" mines similar territory, "Daydreaming" is a throwback gem. Nodding in the direction of the same sort of Sixties songcraft that God Help The Girl looked to for inspiration, this might be Weinroth's very finest composition to date. It's the rarest sort of thing that's both intellectually precise, and emotionally moving. I loved it. On that one, and the closer "All My Life" Weinroth's voice is in wonderful form. There's lots here that makes me think of Gwenno in The Pipettes, and there's a similar approach at work. It's the sound of smart musicians trying on the forms of the old days to make something a bit more nuanced and complex than what we had on offer in the early Sixties. And that's a long-winded way of saying, I loved this whole EP.
I Want You by Cinema Hearts is out on Friday. Details below.
[Photo: Sammy Hearn]