Jeff Stuart and The Hearts

“Equal Parts Reason And Moonlight is a terrific mix of frugal neo-roots charm, fragile indie rock and memorable songs. It’s not an everyday sound by any means, and drawing comparison with other artists isn’t easy/Stuart’s words are haunting and laden with wintry imagery, which is reflected in both the arrangements and the album’s artwork. It’s a near perfect record for the season and provides suitable accompaniment to long dark evenings, drinking hearty red wines and putting the world to right/The many attributes of this fine record are simply impossible to resist or ignore.” - Leicester Bangs Magazine, UK

“Equal Parts Reason And Moonlight is a terrific mix of frugal neo-roots charm, fragile indie rock and memorable songs. It’s not an everyday sound by any means, and drawing comparison with other artists isn’t easy/Stuart’s words are haunting and laden with wintry imagery, which is reflected in both the arrangements and the album’s artwork. It’s a near perfect record for the season and provides suitable accompaniment to long dark evenings, drinking hearty red wines and putting the world to right/The many attributes of this fine record are simply impossible to resist or ignore.” - Leicester Bangs Magazine, UK

“Equal Parts Reason and Moonlight is one of the best albums of 2011, a sweeping, silver-screen mix of ’60s psychedelic pop, folk-rock and atmospheric electronica with exquisite strings.” - Edmonton Journal

“Equal Parts Reason and Moonlight is one of the best albums of 2011, a sweeping, silver-screen mix of ’60s psychedelic pop, folk-rock and atmospheric electronica with exquisite strings.” - Edmonton Journal

"Holy shit, am ever I sick of awesome music. Just kidding - more like vibrating still...mostly thanks to the WCMA machine...as hoped Jeff Stuart ripped the faces off his Teddy's audience" - See Magazine

Jeff Stuart and The Hearts... one of those musician's musicians bands-technically stunning, and layered with organs, violin and keyboard-to-mouth melodica." - Exclaim Magazine

"It's hard enough for me to go out on a Saturday night these days, let alone a Tuesday. I'm glad I dragged my ass out last Tuesday, though. The show at Pawn Shop was, in a word, epic. Jeff Stuart has seriously got something special going on. An all-star band and really, really great songs"

-Vue Weekly, November, 2009
- Vue Weekly

Jeff Stuart & The Hearts Black Dogs Blue Giants: 5/5 stars

"Been blathering to anyone who'd listen for a couple years now about how awesome this Edmonton band is, but now we have the artefact. Let's kick off with the fourth song, "Hold Out," which is basically tantric sex in a bottle. Stuart begins singing — his voice about a third of the way between The Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy — "Yesterday the weather sent a warning with no sound/Looks like summer's leaving this great town/The ghosts up on the platform watch the railcar wheels go round/Farewell shades of golden red and brown." As these warm, epic lyrics wash over you, what's going on in the background is even more amazing, a slow-moving merry-go-round where every new horse catches the light in its own unique way. What sounds like backwards cymbals un-crash in, fingers cautiously step across piano in the dark and Sara Hart sings with the tiniest voice. A wise pause, and the song goes on. It's on a vintage Danielson Family level, just an immaculate build as the spread-out little soldiers almost come together for a predictable crash, but decide to go their separate ways. G'night, slide guitar! G'night, drum Emperor! Timing is everything on this album. It would be so easy to fall into the trap of using all these talented musicians at once to atomize the gates, but instead they make the tension and empty spaces the group's seventh member. Also, eight songs is the perfect number, cleft in two. The next song, "Wrong I Guess," oscillates between being sleepwalking and bush-rocking, while "Telling You" shows off Stuart's vocals as he almost bawls at the sky. But holy shit, then there's "The Wire," a strong candidate for Song of the Year. (It also jumps off the amazing new Great Northern Revival comp Notebook.) Remember that tantric sex comment? Well, this one's pure make-out as Stuart wails, "I heard the jaws of black dogs, screaming out my name." Killer production, best execution of a set of players I've heard in a while, extra cool they're local. Total win-win, taking the corpse of alt-country and turning it unrecognizably beautiful."



- See Magazine

Jeff Stuart & The Hearts Black Dogs Blue Giants: 5/5 stars

"Been blathering to anyone who'd listen for a couple years now about how awesome this Edmonton band is, but now we have the artefact. Let's kick off with the fourth song, "Hold Out," which is basically tantric sex in a bottle. Stuart begins singing — his voice about a third of the way between The Jayhawks' Gary Louris and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy — "Yesterday the weather sent a warning with no sound/Looks like summer's leaving this great town/The ghosts up on the platform watch the railcar wheels go round/Farewell shades of golden red and brown." As these warm, epic lyrics wash over you, what's going on in the background is even more amazing, a slow-moving merry-go-round where every new horse catches the light in its own unique way. What sounds like backwards cymbals un-crash in, fingers cautiously step across piano in the dark and Sara Hart sings with the tiniest voice. A wise pause, and the song goes on. It's on a vintage Danielson Family level, just an immaculate build as the spread-out little soldiers almost come together for a predictable crash, but decide to go their separate ways. G'night, slide guitar! G'night, drum Emperor! Timing is everything on this album. It would be so easy to fall into the trap of using all these talented musicians at once to atomize the gates, but instead they make the tension and empty spaces the group's seventh member. Also, eight songs is the perfect number, cleft in two. The next song, "Wrong I Guess," oscillates between being sleepwalking and bush-rocking, while "Telling You" shows off Stuart's vocals as he almost bawls at the sky. But holy shit, then there's "The Wire," a strong candidate for Song of the Year. (It also jumps off the amazing new Great Northern Revival comp Notebook.) Remember that tantric sex comment? Well, this one's pure make-out as Stuart wails, "I heard the jaws of black dogs, screaming out my name." Killer production, best execution of a set of players I've heard in a while, extra cool they're local. Total win-win, taking the corpse of alt-country and turning it unrecognizably beautiful."



- See Magazine

"A general sense of rampant creativity lends these heartfelt, plaintive songs a dreamy, unpredictable quality that keeps the listener engaged from the disc's beginning to its end... the ambitious arrangements highlight Stuart's songwriting and vocal performances to great effect, burnishing the lustrous melodies with layer upon layer of musical dynamism. It's elegant, sophisticated, daring, and brilliantly creative, but more than anything, just as the band's name suggests, this music is indeed from the heart.

-CKUA Presents: Alberta Disc-overies, 2009-

- CKUA Radio Network

Black Dogs Blue Giants Jeff Stuart & the Hearts (Independent)

"Rating 4 1/2

Alt-country might be the starting point for the Hearts, but only in an allusive way, almost as if they decided to reconstruct the genre after hearing about it rather than actually hearing it. They're baroque rather than barroom, enamoured of tricky musical arrangements and elliptical lyrics ( Wrong I Guess), shoegazers that sometimes like to stomp. Brian Wilson would appreciate the vocal harmonies, Charlie Rich would nod appreciatively at Stuart's existential weariness; call them what you will, I'm calling them for the year-end Top 10 list." - Edmonton Journal

Black Dogs Blue Giants Jeff Stuart & the Hearts (Independent)

"Rating 4 1/2

Alt-country might be the starting point for the Hearts, but only in an allusive way, almost as if they decided to reconstruct the genre after hearing about it rather than actually hearing it. They're baroque rather than barroom, enamoured of tricky musical arrangements and elliptical lyrics ( Wrong I Guess), shoegazers that sometimes like to stomp. Brian Wilson would appreciate the vocal harmonies, Charlie Rich would nod appreciatively at Stuart's existential weariness; call them what you will, I'm calling them for the year-end Top 10 list." - Edmonton Journal

"It's hard enough for me to go out on a Saturday night these days, let alone a Tuesday. I'm glad I dragged my ass out last Tuesday, though. The show at Pawn Shop was, in a word, epic. Jeff Stuart has seriously got something special going on. An all-star band and really, really great songs"

-Vue Weekly, November, 2009
- Vue Weekly