Hearts and Unicorns (Revised)

Album Review

Giant Drag's debut, Hearts and Unicorns, is a sometimes hazy, sometimes fizzy blast of who-cares rock, not meaning that you, the listener, will find it as disposable as the cups sitting next to the beer keg, but that its creators, singer/guitarist Annie Hardy and drummer/keyboardist Micah Calabrase, seemed to have tossed it off while waiting for their next turn at the tap. Hardy's voice, a Liz Phair-ish, PJ Harvey-ish concoction that's part sleepy little girl, part p****d-off teen, reels you in from the meowing outro of first track "Kevin Is Gay" all the way through the '90s-reminiscent closer, "Slayer," but it's her banged-up guitar playing and light touch with a batch of twisted lyrics that seem most enduring. "This isn't it," she sings rather poignantly of a doomed relationship on the same-titled track; minutes later, she's cooing in the direction of a "Pretty Little Neighbor." Influences find their way through the music in little fits, with the Beach Boys surfacing here, Nirvana poking up there, and My Bloody Valentine erupting through the occasional racket more often than either of them. [This edition contains bonus tracks.]