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Nick Piunti & the Complicated Men — Heart inside Your Head
(Bandcamp no#, 2022, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2022-07-07

Heart inside Your Head Cover art

It’s always a good day when a new Nick Piunti disc reaches our mailbox at Exposé. The latest, Heart inside Your Head, is another winner, a collection of ten irresistible power pop tunes with great hooks and superbly crafted lyrics, each one a masterpiece of rocking songcraft that’ll get lodged inside your consciousness for days on end. Now that the pandemic is pretty much in the past, Nick and his Complicated Men will soon be out and about delivering the goods to their loyal fans in their native Detroit area and parts beyond. For this edition, Piunti plays guitar, sings lead and plays some synths as well, with Jeff Hupp on bass, Kevin Darnall on piano, organ, and synths, Joe Daksiewicz on guitar, and behind the drum kit is Ron Vensko, pretty much the same lineup as the last album with a little more guitar firepower added. There are guest players as well on backing vocals, more synths, more guitars, and so on where needed. The album opens with “My Mind (Plays Tricks on Me),” one of the best songs they’ve created to date, a powerful and urgent gem that fires on all cylinders and gets the job done in just a little over two minutes. The title track is next up, a heavy stomper with some unforgettable hooks and a ripping guitar solo — it’s hard not to be drawn in. Other standouts include the jangly “I Want Everything,” with its late-60s vibe and perhaps a bit reminiscent of the late Tom Petty; “One of the Boyz” is another one that will follow you around for days, no surprise it was released as a single before the album; “Nothing New” is perhaps the best lyric of the whole set, with a superb guitar solo to boot. Heart inside My Head features masterful songcraft and arrangements informed by some of the best from the glory days of rock.

Filed under: New releases, 2022 releases

Related artist(s): Nick Piunti

More info
http://nickpiuntimusic.bandcamp.com/album/heart-inside-your-head

 

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