A boring version of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s

Artist: Giant Drag
Album: Hearts and Unicorns
Label: Kickball Records
Tracks: 13
Length: 49:07
Review by: John Durkee

Annie Hardy and Micah Calabrese make up the Orange County duo from Orange County known as Giant Drag. Hardy sings and plays guitar while Calabrese plays drums and keys. Giant Drag’s sound has a mix of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and Starflyer 59. Musically Giant Drag probably sounds more like Starflyer, but Hardy’s vocals sound very much like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O.

Hearts and Unicorns is made up of guitar driven pop songs like “Kevin is Gay,” as well as quiet introspective songs like “Cordial Invitation.” There are also plenty of “experimental” songs on the record, but they’re mostly very boring. The aforementioned first two songs on the album are easily the best as they have the most interesting guitar lines and vocal hooks on the album. While the meowed chorus at the end of “Kevin is Gay” is fun in some ways, it mostly comes off as annoying, as do the multi-tracked studio banter of Hardy explaining how much she digs the song. In general the studio banter on Hearts and Unicorns is quite annoying in general.

If one is a big fan of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and can afford to throw around some cash, this isn’t a bad buy. It’s overall a decent CD musically. However, the lyrical themes and message are a bit off as they’re mostly in the form of man-hating as well as the album having crude song titles like, “My D*** Sux” and “Yflmd” (which is an acronym for “You F*** Like My Father Did”). The actual lyrics of these songs are not reflections of the titles of the songs, but the titles reflect the overall meaning and message of a band that has a rather skewed view and perhaps a demented sense of humor. Overall I’d say that Giant Drag has potential, but Hearts and Unicorns dumb or sick themes and plethora of boring songs keep it from being anything but mediocre.