TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS

Format: 12” White Vinyl

Released: 2005, October 11

Label: Sub Pop

As artists go, Constantines are as supremely underrated, like many generation’s greatest tend to be. This 2005 release, recorded to tape, captured something different than the anger and confusion of a post 9/11 America. A melancholy heartbreak told in the intimate low spoken language of lovers on humid early summer nights in a city that’s best times left it years ago. Not lost but battered, Constantines craft a record that plays more accurately today than it did on its release. Where fellow Canadians Arcade Fire would take Springsteen at his most decadent, Constantines took him at his most honest and desperate. Moving forward, but not exactly sure how or where, Tournament of Hearts feels like an honest mans prose in the commonplace of everyday life.