{"id":21302,"date":"2021-07-20T05:30:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T09:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=21302"},"modified":"2025-12-18T16:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T21:08:32","slug":"ep-review-the-checkered-hearts-joystick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/20\/ep-review-the-checkered-hearts-joystick\/","title":{"rendered":"EP Review: The Checkered Hearts &#8212; Joystick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-21303\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/checkered_hearts_ep.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/checkered_hearts_ep.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/checkered_hearts_ep-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/checkered_hearts_ep-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>The two musicians involved in this modest project were clearly having a good time. Singers and multi-instrumentalists Hillary Burton and Lisa Mychols are, I think we can assume, persons of a certain age, and this EP is a cheery look back at some of the music than informed tier own sensibilities. \u201cThe Cars\u2019 \u201cMy Best Friend\u2019s Girl\u201d is deftly stripped of its new wave sheen and delivered as a catchy pop tune with a subtle hint of \u201860s garage with a whiff of riot grrl. The Housemartins\u2019 \u201cHappy Hour\u201d gets similar treatment with delightful results. Phil Seymour\u2019s immortal pop gem \u201cPrecious to Me\u201d is given a straight reading, with lovely vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n<p>Kirsty MacColl\u2019s \u201cThey Don\u2019t Know\u201d is transformed from its Spectorian original into something that, as it happens, would have fit more neatly into the Stiff Records aesthetic. It certainly doesn\u2019t improve on the original \u2013 nothing could \u2013 but it\u2019s a nice treatment. Far edgier is a cover of The Knack\u2019s \u201cGood Girls Don\u2019t.\u201d The duo manages to sing those lower-register parts. And yes, they sing <i>that<\/i> lyric line. Makes me wonder if the EP&#8217;s title is a double-entendre.<\/p>\n<p>A bonus track (\u201cSo Long, Maybe\u201d) breaks the all-covers mold, and finds Mychols and Burton exploring a spiky Veruca Salt vibe. Perhaps this EP is more than a buswomens\u2019 holiday. Maybe it\u2019s a teaser\/trial balloon for an upcoming full-length collection of originals? If so, count me in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The two musicians involved in this modest project were clearly having a good time. Singers and multi-instrumentalists Hillary Burton and Lisa Mychols are, I think we can assume, persons of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[4597,3428,4596],"class_list":["post-21302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-hillary-burton","tag-lisa-mychols","tag-the-checkered-hearts","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30569,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21302\/revisions\/30569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}