Blue Skies for Black Hearts: Rock with a Wink

In "Siouxsie Please Come Home," Blue Skies for Black Hearts' members demonstrate a love for the rock and pop of the past. Justin Dylan Renney hide caption

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Justin Dylan Renney

Patrick Kearns makes no attempt to hide his love for old records. His influences remain right out in the open, with song titles like "With a Rubber Soul" winking playfully at anyone familiar with the history of rock music over the past 40 years.

Kearns and his band Blue Skies for Black Hearts keep winking with "Siouxsie Please Come Home," from their third album, Serenades and Hand Grenades. Unlike the gentle acoustic pop of the band's past work, "Siouxsie Please Come Home" — with its raw electric backbeats, its British Invasion-inspired melody, and its rousing chorus of "I don't wanna waste all of your time" — heralds a rock 'n' roll album saturated with electric guitars, abrasive horns, multi-part vocal harmonies, and even a string section.

The song also represents a role reversal of sorts, as the Siouxsie for whom Kearns pines is a soldier on the front lines: "You're pointing guns and throwing hand grenades / while I'm home and safe writing serenades." With a girl to worry for, he finds comfort in those timeless records.

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