The title of The Heartbreaks’ second album, We May Yet Stand A Chance, offers a window to the revived headspace of a band that not too long ago were “fucking fed up”, as Joe Kondras puts it in Issue 11. The Morecambe four piece have had it up to here with the bearded banjoites clogging up the charts as a crap embodiment of ‘alternative music’. Who hasn’t?

“They all look the same, they’ve all got woolly fucking hats on and they mumble about nothing. You know what mate? Take your fucking woolly hat off and give a shit about something. Sing about something.”

The Heartbreaks’ new album is a magnificent and rousing record that gives a definitive middle finger to the status quo. Ahead of the record’s release and a summer tour (including a return to Japan and a slot at Niigata’s legendary Fuji Rock festival), Joe and Deaks share the emotion-soaked tracks they’ve got on lasting rotation.

Seven And Seven Is by Love, selected by Joe
“I’m massively into Love at the moment. I think you can hear them in places on our new album. This song completely blew my mind when I first heard it. It’s freneticism is unrelenting, it leaves you gasping for breath.”

Sand by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, selected by Joe
“I could have picked any song off this album, it is without doubt one of my favourite records of all time. It’s elegant, cinematic, celestial, sexy and sinister all at the same time. I think Lee Hazlewood is a genius. Top moustache too.”

Everybody’s Been Burned by The Byrds, selected by Joe
“This is my favourite Byrds song. It’s them at their most melancholic, their most tender and their most haunting. I fucking love the bass in this, for a song so sparse and mellow the bass is pretty busy but it really works. The dualing, jangling guitars sound like David Crosby’s tear drops falling from his eyes.”

Running Dry by Neil Young, selected by Joe
“This is how I feel every Tuesday.”

Country Feedback Apparently by REM, selected by Joe
“Apparently the vocal was done in one take, the incomplete lyric read from a piece of paper. I love the fragility, the nakedness of this song.”

Waiting Around To Die by Townes Van Zandt, selected by Joe
“This is how I feel every Tuesday.”

The Seventh Seal by Scott Walker, selected by Joe
“There’s a dramatic, dark elegance to all of Scott Walker’s work that we really wanted to emulate on our album. The Seventh Seal typify’s what I’m talking about.”

Spanish Bombs by The Clash, selected by Joe
“This song fired my imagination and interest in The Spanish Civil War, it got me reading Hemingway and Orwell which ultimately inspired me to write ‘Robert Jordan’ off our forthcoming record. For a pop song to spark an interest and inspire like that is really something and increasingly rare these days. They don’t write ’em like they used to.”

The Ecstasy Of God (L’Estasi dell’Oro) by Ennio Morricone, selected by Joe
“I can’t even begin begin to articulate how alive this piece of music makes me feel.”

Something Like You by Michael Head and The Strands, selected by Deaks
““I believe in you forever”. Has there ever been a better declaration of love over a cod-Bacharach chord progression and soaring string arrangement? No, there hasn’t. The album version is only on YouTube as the entire record, which you should listen to. For now, here’s the single”

The House That Jack Kerouac Built, The Go Betweens selected by Deaks
“I can’t decide whether I like the line about pleasure in a darkened cinema stall, or the one about Irish poetry more. The fact they both coexist in the same song with 1980’s production techniques make it worth a thousand listens.”

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings by Father John Misty, selected by Deaks
“One drum beat, no more than five chords and the best opening line and melody ever committed to record.”

Affection by The Lost Boys, selected by Deaks
“In this slice of pure, unadulterated Jersey Shore rock and roll, Stevie Van Zandt claims both to be ‘The monkey you’ve always been afraid of” and also that one day, you will get used to him not being good looking, just like he did. I cannot fault the man for his vision.”

Absolved by The Heartbreaks

Amplifier by Kurt Vile
“THAT TRUMPET SOLO FROM OUT OF NOWHERE.”

Weak Spot by Evelyn Thomas
“Because groove is very, very important, and you would struggle to do a back drop to most of the other songs on this playlist.”

The Heartbreaks’ new album, ‘We May Yet Stand A Chance’, is out 2nd June via Nusic Sounds. The first single from the album, ‘Absolved’, is out now. 

Catch the band’s last London gig at Oslo Hackney this Friday. Tickets here. 

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