From the very first strum there is a dark and bloody taste to Pete Gardiner‘s ‘Sing From The Heart‘, it’s got that old time blues in it’s soul and it whips the smoky haze into a thunderstorm that strikes lightning bolt electricity into the heart of the listener.
Pete Gardiner is a damn fine lyricist. This song had us sat up in our chair begging for the next line. It’s clever, it’s accomplished, and it’s deliciously dark. He plays with the narrative whilst dishing out one liners that would steal the show or warrant a chorus in any other track.
“It’s a long road to heaven
That the devil has been paying me to pave”
“Met the crocodile for lunch
And gave the bastard back his tears”
Thematically it’s a bitch slap to the status quo, a man snapped under the enormous pressures of the world. It’s a rogue’s anthem, it’s broken bad, it’s fallen all the way down. The protagonist has lost all morals and is begging the listener to offer him a better path.
Behind the lyrics is a full sounding broken waltz on the guitar and piano, it builds into powerful explosive waves and then subsides revealing the jagged rocks underneath. It has a great deal of warmth and the music has a fullness to the sound that is sometimes lacking in songs so focused on lyrics and vocal performance.
The production is professional and polished with this ear tickling crackle added to the vocals that just tips it into a whole other plane. It has this old world soul beating in the ribcage of a modern day rock’n’roll classic.
At around the 3:30 mark the song switches it up and does this jittering stop/start routine that resurrects The King (thank you very much) himself to add this sultry sex appeal to the croon of the vocals as the narrator dives head first into the deviancy.
This is the kind of song that reminds you why you fell head in heels with music in the first place. Lyrically it’s electric. Musically it’s a knockout. It leans in to its narrative and matches it in both emotion and sound. Every aspect of the track is measured and masterful. On top of all of that it’s got a chorus that winds itself around your very core; we always write from the heart, but tonight we’re growling out this song’s praise.
Words by Matt Miles
