Stop Heartbeat

Album Review

The Foxglove Hunt is a side project that trumps both of its members' primary bands. Ronnie Martin (leader of the CCM synth pop revivalists Joy Electric) and Robert Withem (singer from a minor band in a similar style called Fine China) have both evinced a fondness for the sound of MTV's early days in their previous work, but Stop Heartbeat is a full-fledged return to the sound of the synth pop duo. An unapologetic throwback filled with echoes of everyone from Soft Cell and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the Thompson Twins and the Psychedelic Furs (whose signature song, "Love My Way," is faithfully covered here), Stop Heartbeat is a twinkly delight for all aging new romantics. Withem's breathy vocals and heavily processed guitar mesh perfectly with Martin's vintage synthesizers and drum machines, and all the musical elements are, crucially, put in the service of solidly built, ultra-melodic pop songs topped with literate, intelligent lyrics. There's no sense of parody or slumming on Stop Heartbeat, no self-protective veneer of irony to tracks as giddily tuneful as "The Mayflower Compact" and "A Concealed Weapon." The results will charm anyone with a predisposition to the style.