Heypenny
Tendre
Free Download

I’m going to come clean. I’ve listened to Heypenny’s first record, Use These Spoons, countless times. I think it’s a perfect little pop masterpiece. I’ll even admit to enjoying some of their live antics with marching bands and embracing the notion that a live show should be a show, not just trudging through your songs. However, the frantic energy of A Jillion Kicks wore me out. Listening to it, for me, felt like an impending heart attack. It’s a solid record, I just couldn’t listen to it without experiencing some palpitations.

All that is to say that when I read that the band released Tendre yesterday, for free, I was hesitant to dive in. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded because the record is, as it says in the title, rather tender (or, more accurately, a tender feeling of fondess). Tendre is an EP of ballads but not without emotional punch. “Walnut Bridge” is a perfect soundtrack to a cold winter morning and “La La Loud” is a great bit of heartwrenching, particularly when paired with the video.

I tend not to ramble on so much in these reviews but I think Heypenny gets a bad rap occasionally (I’m guilty of it myself). They’re quality songwriters and Tendre shows a more subdued side of them that I am happy to see emerge a bit more.

Self
“Looks and Money”
Available Digitally

There hasn’t been any regular output from Self since 2000’s Gizmodgery. Sure, there has been the occasional release over the years – the Shrek soundtrack song, the “Could You Love Me Now?” song and a few others here and there but it seems Mahaffey’s focus has been on other things (understandably so). So, when a new song hits the Internet it’s worth taking note of. It’s only a single song but when you’re a diehard Self fan looking for a fix, it will have to do. This particular ditty is “a distorto-diity about fast women.”