You Had My Heart by Coronation Ball (Single)

Coronation Ball drag the funky, R&B-inflected indie-rock of Dismemberment Plan kicking and careening into a new decade

Debut single You Had My Heart has the same careening vocal approach as Alt-J, though with just a little more honey dripping from those lymph nodes than Joe Newman normally musters, with the mix of female and male backing vocal adding a soaring quality that carries you along with each rising melody. Musically there’s a mix of staccato percussion and scratchyt indie-rock guitars fighting against a funky, opaque, bass that, much like the Dismemberment Plan classic Emergency & I, makes no attempt to hide its R&B crush.

Much like the bands that sprung up in the wake of Kid A’s exploding of the creativity vacuum in alt-music – one that had festered since the first notes of KoЯn’s genre-defining, dross-inspiring Blind spat into consciousness – it’s not that Coronation Ball borrow from the music of Alt-J. Rather, they take heart from the desire to be different and are relentlessly their own band: esoteric enough to attract hipsters, but catchy enough to have housewives’ ears bent wide open.

Songwriting may have already announced our tips for 2014, but don’t be surprised if it’s not long before Coronation Ball are on the tips of your tongue.

Verdict: Hip and catchy indie that’s relentlessly at ease with itself

Damien Girling

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