Wired Eyes (alternate mix)
Hard to Fall (alternate mix)

All money made from digital sales goes to Sandy Hook Promise
www.sandyhookpromise.org

Words and music by Phil Sutton.

Calico Cat Records CAL012

With Love, Burns Phil Sutton of the Pale Lights charges out of the gate with a new project that is blistering in its intensity, anger, and damn good melodies. Both tracks on this double A-sided single are a knock out. “Wired Eyes” is like the Byrds pitched just a bit faster than you might expect, with a jangle run that will set your heart racing and lyrics that will move you to action. “Hard to Fall” has a guitar/organ interplay that also tugs on something deep inside, again, with a strong Bryds or International Submarine Band feel. The guitar solo here is also something special, such a perfect distillation of the song’s melody. This is what hit radio should sound like all the time.

Poprock Record ~ Songs with a hook
poprockrecord.com/tag/love-burns/

We live in strange times, but wasn’t it ever thus? I suspect yes. But still, a world where there are people walking the earth who genuinely believe school shootings are meticulously planned hoaxes, played out by actors, is one where Alice hasn’t just stepped through the looking glass, but has turned round and smashed it to bits with a claw hammer.

Unavoidably heavy stuff, so can you make music from it without descending into seriously dark sh*t?
Love, Burns have taken up the challenge and you know what, how can you not react to this craziness? Art, politics, real life, existential doubt, despair, all gets churned up and feeds into whatever we do, so it’s totally justified as a far as I’m concerned.

First, some background: Love, Burns is the solo project of a man with a ridiculously indie-cred history, I mean for starters Phil Sutton was a founding member of Comet Gain (Ben Philippson guests here on lead guitar), on top of that you can pick and choose from Pale Lights, Cinema Red and Blue and more. All this from someone who probably wouldn’t describe himself as a musician and claims not to be able to play guitar in a conventional sense…

Bearing in mind the subject matter, it’s no surprise to find that Wired Eyes is driven by horror and indignation, but Sutton sweetens the pill with a Byrds-like melodic jangle, full of righteous anger and necessary urgency. Rushing to it’s conclusion in two minutes twenty seconds, this is a fight song,

‘They want to break you, Will you give in?Don’t let those bastards win’

Wired Eyes is a clarion call for empathy and action, with all the spirit and fervour that probably helped draw many of us to the indie-flame in the first place.

Fittingly the flip side of this digital single is another fight song, this time it’s a personal battle being fought, using medication and the power of sheer bloody-mindedness, although the enemy, depression, is far harder to get a grip on.

Riding a wave of rousing Hammond organ, Hard to Fall’s key line could well be: ‘Too sad to know my mind’ A tough place to be and often a hard location to leave.

As ever music can help, so get your inspiration and succour here, not only that but proceeds go to the Sandy Hook Promise charity, what more could you want?

Simon Heavysides, fadeawayradiate
www.fadeawayradiate.com/2021/04/love-burns-wired-eyes/