With both a supporting tour and a massive headlining tour coming up, Scottish rockers The Xcerts are a band we’ll hopefully hear a lot from in 2019. The first thing we get is a four track EP titled Wildheart Dreaming, a lyric taken from their hit song ‘Feels Like Falling In Love.’ What is Wildheart Dreaming exactly? To The Xcerts, it is the end of a chapter. This EP marks the end of the Hold Onto Your Heart era, and the beautiful minimalism of the cover reflects this. There are no hidden messages on this record. What you see is what you get, and that is a beautiful collection of songs, with the motif of dreaming mentioned throughout. But you don’t need to be an English teacher or reviewer to understand the meaning. It is about love in all forms.
Their most radio-friendly single ‘You Mean Everything’ kick starts the EP. Radio-friendly often brings up bad connotations, but this is not the case here. In fact, it is everywhere-friendly. The message is one that everyone can understand and for me sparks feelings of showing how much friends and family truly mean. Speaking about the song, vocalist, Murray Macleod said, “It turned into a song for all the people I’ve never met. For the ones who feel alone, without self worth, this song is for you. It’s a song about compassion which is the theme that runs through the EP and we are so psyched that these songs are finding their way into the world.”
Compassion truly is the theme throughout the album, and this continues with ballad ‘Ready To Call,’ which reminds us that there is always someone just a call away. From the first ‘ohs’ you know it’s going to be a catchy tune, and it delivers. It gets us ready to call out the lyrics with an easy, repetitive chorus and consistent chords. You won’t be able to get it out of your head.
Explosive drums lead into ‘Fight or Run’, a youthful anthem, which captures the feeling of a first relationship. Its fast pace makes it a danceable track. Heart-wrenching, slow dance romance is saved for the EP’s closer ‘Real Love.’ The song is certainly real, with no effects or electronics at all, just Macleod’s voice with an acoustic guitar. It is fully mastered to perfection, yet completely raw.
This EP is like exercise, it starts off fast before you have to cool down. Everyone needs to recover after the blatant emotion put into the songs. They stand on their own, a separate entity to Hold Onto Your Heart, yet they fit the album all the same. Macleod says he hopes to write two albums this year, so let’s hope we hear these soon, and if it is actually possible to top this chapter.
Make sure to catch The Xcerts on tour while you can.
