Sweet Pill - Where The Heart Is

I almost want to give them a bad review because when I saw them at Starland Ballroom they introduced themselves as a Philadelphia band. Blech. I know for a fact they started at Rowan University and were the first (and to my knowledge, only) band to really break out of the Glassboro scene. But this CD is undeniable.

They structured the sequence such that the hits “Where the Heart Is” and “Cut” bookend a more subdued middle. That’s not to say that this album ever drags; at 29 minutes and 10 songs, the album doesn’t have any excess material to weigh it down. Two handed tapping and open tuning emo from New Jersey usually goes hand in hand with absurd tempos thanks to the likes of Algernon Cadwallader and Marietta, but Sweet Pill is content to stroll along at its own pace. It’s relaxed and confident, and yet technical and ambitious.

The album cover is instantly arresting. Two marble-white hands squeezing the uneasy pink face of their lead singer, surrounded by painted darkness. It’s the perfect visual encapsulation of the album’s themes of suffocation under high expectations. The insert is in poster-form, with all the lyrics written in curving lines around a coffee-stain painting of two hands with eyes in their palms. I totally dig it.

Where the Heart Is by Sweet Pill is a good album, and I like it.