Volcano and Heart

Volcano and Heart is the brainchild of lead singer and songwriter Rey Villalobos whose fragile yet soaring vocals paint a dreamlike watercolor reminiscent of sunset on the ocean in their hometown of Santa Barbara. The songs bristle with anticipation, longing, and understated emotion. Strings and occasional horns infuse the music with a majestic atmosphere that can trigger bouts of serious immersion.

On their first single and the opening track "Look at Her Face", the delicate introduction sets the mood for the string and noise-guitar backed zenith, truly an excellent pop song and well deserving of its increasingly mainstream airplay. Tracks like "In Between the Days" and "Yesterday/Tomorrow" show the band at the height of their ability to be at once solemn and commanding, and hint at influences such as Elliott Smith and Radiohead without retracing musically traveled ground. Occasionally on tracks such as "Ancient Modern People" they decide to turn up the amplitude.