Reverend and The Makers – Heatwave in the Cold North Review

Diving into the summery, dance-like Heatwave in the Cold North provides excellent depth and understanding of lyrical confidence. Sunshine emanates indoors for Reverend and The Pacemakers, who rattle through with a track that speaks to the surprise of a heatwave in the North of the country. Shocking it is to hear that good weather strikes above Leeds, more surprising is the sincere charm and cool, smooth running of Heatwave in the Cold North. Smart wordplay is the cusp of a solid beat turning into a memorable piece. The latter may not happen for everyone with this latest piece from John McLure and company, but it is a delight to those it does touch.

Anyone that finds themselves to be a sucker for string sections will find Heatwave in the Cold North a sincere delight. It is a track where instrumentals take hold and are at the forefront. They are the important trickery, layered excellence flowing through to battle on alongside some vague and well-stated lyrics. There are lingering thoughts in that opening drum beat that whittle away a feeling of order piña colada. Where Rupert Holmes’ influence begins and ends is unknowable on a track made for all seasons. Heatwave in the Cold North certainly feels responsible enough to mark itself as a track for round-the-year listening. Its title implies a greater and more troubling period of heating up the cold and cooling down the heat. Beyond that implication though is a strong love song that proudly displays affection as a source of positivity.

Those moments indoors and the rain battering away is felt well by McLure and the band around him. His line delivery is solid, they are vaguely typical of what the alternative rock genre of a lighter variety should expect, and rightly so. Heatwave in the Cold North is a light and breezy track that lends itself well to the lyrics but displays consistency in the instrumentals that provide that next, necessary step. Tenured Reverend and The Makers are, it is keen and fun to see what they leave with their tracks and Heatwave in the Cold North is no exception to their positive actions. Repetitive in places, but on the fine line between annoying and engaging, never wavering to either side but play it enough and it’ll surely fall for one side or the other.

Which way it falls is entirely up to the summer-filled fun or environmentally aware perceptions found on Heatwave in the Cold North. Summer loving and the blast that it is compared with that of a global crisis that marks an aftertaste and repetition of “warm embrace”. What precisely that warm embrace is can be related to as freely and broadly as Reverend and The Makers’ music. Heatwave in the Cold North is a solid introduction to the band and their talents, a nice piece of upbeat music featuring that great crashing of soft rock Escape and an inevitable guitar solo that feels just as humble as it sounds.