Popcorn Noises

The Love Language - “Heart to Tell”

Would you think less of me (or more) if I told you this was the only Love Language song I paid any attention to? Gosh, I sure hope that doesn’t inadvertently say something uncool about me, since me looking cool is the entire point of this exercise (wink!). Really, though, the things that make “Heart to Tell” great are not bound to a discography or the character of a single artist; they belong to the collective unconscious of pop music. For one thing, it’s absolutely airtight: two verses, two choruses, and a ten-second guitar solo right in the middle, all over in two and a half minutes. Hand claps and tambourines abound, with little drum breaks punctuating the strummy psuedo-rockabilly. The subject matter is also standard—dude loves girl but can’t bring himself to say anything to her, so he continues to long for her from afar. “Some fools rush in / some fools just wait,” warns the chorus, and of course, there is the penultimate line, “You can walk all over me, just don’t you walk away.” Certainly not a daring song or even a triumph of customs so much as a young band flexing textbook form and really sticking the landing. I wanted to say it could have been anyone, but maybe The Love Language deserve more credit here—pulling off this kind of seamless pop with energy and flair is a lot easier said than done.