Heads Up, Warpaint

Warpaint’s third studio album, Heads Up, starts out very strong with the track “Whiteout.” It’s one of their more upbeat songs, and it sets the stage for the new album with the same drawling voice and melancholy feel of their other two albums.

In my opinion, the best part of Heads Up is that a few of the tracks flow between their older, slower, darker sound and a new, alternative pop sound. This brings a new dimension into their music that still stays true to their older stuff. A good example is “By Your Side,” which bounces back and forth between sounds and even moods with a strong ending. “So Good” was another interesting song that switches up the beat and changes tempo in the middle of the song, almost making up for the complete lack of lyrics in its chorus.

The beats and different sounds in “Don’t Wanna” and “Don’t Let Go” were very intriguing, and I wish (especially in “Don’t Let Go”) that they were able to support them with some good lyrics, but unfortunately lyrics just aren’t their strong suit.

All around Heads Up is more upbeat than their other albums, and there’s a pop aspect that wasn’t there so much in Warpaint or The Fool. For example, if you were to listen only to the choruses of “New Song,” “Don’t Let Go,” and “Whiteout,” you might think that we were dealing with a pop band. However, when you take the album as a whole, it’s obvious that Warpaint hasn’t really branched out too far from where they came from. They’ve experimented more with their sound and how to support it with new beats and different background noise, but they’re still the gloomy, moody band they were before, which isn’t a bad thing, especially if you like their old music. To me, Heads Up seemed like a disjointed bunch of interesting experimental songs, not like an complete album. I enjoyed it, but I think they could have made it flow together better.

Photos from Warpaint’s Facebook