Supergroup The Empty Hearts, which includes founding members of The Cars, Blondie and The Romantics, has released two new songs — “The World’s Gone Insane” and “The Best That I Can” — which will appear on the band’s forthcoming sophomore album.
The record, aptly titled The Second Album, will be released on August 28, and is available for pre-order now on multiple formats.
The two new tracks recently premiered at AmericanSongwriter.com, and you can check out an official video for “The World’s Gone Insane” at The Empty Hearts’ official YouTube channel. The clip features a mind-spinning montage of video footage and photos of world leaders, catastrophes, TV shows, movies, music videos and more that reflect the song’s theme of the global chaos we’re now experiencing.
The Empty Hearts feature Cars guitarist Elliot Easton, Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Romantics singer/guitarist Wally Palmar, and bassist Andy Babiuk of veteran garage-rock band The Chesterfield Kings.
Like most of The Empty Hearts’ music, the new songs bear strong 1960s garage-rock influences.
“Those two songs in particular, really came about from a mutual collaboration in the recording studio,” Burke tells American Songwriter. “Someone would have a riff or a title. We’d all pick up on one another’s vibe and where it’s going with the song, and we would all fall into a groove. And we collaborated on the lyrics.”
Two other tracks from The Second Album were released earlier this year, including “Remember Days Like These,” which features none other than Ringo Starr on drums.
“To have started out as a 10-year-old seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and having that affect my life in so many ways — to get Ringo to play a track was an incredible gift,” Easton says.
Here’s The Second Album’s full track list:
“Coat-Tailer”
“Remember Days Like These” (featuring Ringo Starr)
“Well, Look at You”
“Jonathan Harker’s Journal”
“Sometimes S*** Happens for a Reason”
“The Best That I Can”
“If I Could Change Your Mind”
“Come On and Try It”
“The World as We Know It, Moves On”
“The Haunting of the Tin Soldier”
“Death by Insomnia”
“The World’s Gone Insane”
“Indigo Dusk of the Night”
By Matt Friedlander
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