Hey Rosetta!

About the artist

Formed in St. John's, Newfoundland, in 2005 around the talents of Tim Baker (vocals, piano, guitar), Adam Hogan (guitar), Josh Ward (bass), Phil Maloney (drums), Kinley Dowling (violin), and Romesh Thavanathan (cello), explosive indie rock sextet Hey Rosetta! craft emotionally resonant rock anthems that echo Brit-pop outfits like Hope of the States and the Veils while channeling the orchestral rock of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. Hey Rosetta! released their debut self-titled EP in 2005 followed by the full-length Plan Your Escape in 2006, both of which received positive critical and commercial response in their native Canada. In 2008 the band released Into Your Lungs (And Around in Your Heart and on Through Your Blood), produced by legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Hawksley Workman. Seeds followed in 2011.

James Christopher Monger, Rovi

	Top songs	Album
1	Red Heart	Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)	4:40	1
2	Psalm	Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)	3:19	1
3	Young Glass	Seeds (Deluxe Edition)	5:36	1
4	We Made A Pact	Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)	3:45	1
5	Young Glass (Acoustic)	Seeds (Deluxe Edition)	6:05	1
6	Bricks	Seeds (Deluxe Edition)	4:18	1
7	There's An Arc	Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)	5:07	1
8	I've Been Asleep For A Long, Long Time	Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)	5:47	1
9	Welcome	Seeds (Deluxe Edition)	4:02	1
10	O Come O Come Emanuel	A Cup Of Kindness Yet (EP)	4:40	1

Albums

A Cup Of Kindness Yet (EP)

Hey Rosetta!

Seeds (Deluxe Edition)

Hey Rosetta!

Multi-layered, elegant, and well arranged, Seeds has it all, except for the hooks. That wouldn't be mandatory for an indie rock album with controls set toward Arcade Fire and Muse, but with Hey Rosetta!, their simple alt-rock roots still stick out from under the towering monuments of strings and ethereal keyboards, and they're not as gripping and immediate as they should be. It does feel like everything's in place, at first: the rhythm section plays fast, the guitars churn out the simple reverb- and delay-filled riffs that returned to the mainstream after Snow Patrol released Final Straw, and the wavering, down-to-earth vocals add just the right dose of intimacy to their generally positive sound. The band builds on this foundation quite a bit, going from droning, interlaced post-rock-like textures to cellos and violins (they even tour with a string section), not to mention squeezing a lot of development into four-minute tunes, which are in no way limited to the good old verse-chorus scheme. Perhaps they should have been: otherwise, the music, while dense enough, never reaches the larger-than-life grandeur of, say, the Twilight Sad (whom Hey Rosetta! recall at times), but doesn't deliver on the earworms the Snow Patrol tag promises, either. It's as if they really couldn't settle on one thing, going for epic one minute and catchy the other, while constantly changing the goal mid-air (or, sometimes, settling on soft indie pop by way of a breather). This doesn't make Seeds a bad album -- it's a clever and energetic slab of indie rock -- but it does add a frustrating edge to a generally pleasant experience. [The album was reissued in 2012 with three bonus tracks -- acoustic versions of "Young Glass," "Welcome," and "Seventeen."]

Alexey Eremenko, Rovi

Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)

Hey Rosetta!

Influenced by the Beatles, Jeff Buckley, and fellow Canadians Arcade Fire, Into Your Lungs (And Around in Your Heart and on Through Your Blood) is the second album from garage rock six-piece Hey Rosetta! Produced by Toronto multi-instrumentalist Hawksley Workman, their 2008 follow-up to Plan Your Escape includes the singles "Red Heart" and "There's an Arc," alongside a duet with Nova Scotia pop vocalist Jenn Grant on "We Made a Pact."

Jon O'Brien, Rovi

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