Cargo Records

Strange Hearts

In a year full of bail-outs and bank failures, Secret Cities found themselves fortunate to occupy the basement of a recently abandoned bank in Kansas City, Missouri. Complete with bulletproof glass, functioning pneumatic tubes, and a giant vault, this space served as the band's studio as they recorded their sophomore effort, Strange Hearts. After recording their debut at a glacial pace over five years, Secret Cities decided to try something radically different. Working against a self imposed deadline, Strange Hearts was written and recorded within three intense, creatively fertile (if sleepless) months. The effort paid off with a taught pop record, crystallized like coal under enormous pressure. Filtering the classic romanticism of Dusty Springfield and the Shangri-Las through their own kaleidoscopic aesthetic, these songs pulse with an alluring mixture of melancholy and hopeful innocence, as warm and inviting as they are elusive and peculiar.While carefully crafted, the album possesses a newfound brevity and directness rooted in the excitement of creation. Ultimately, Strange Hearts is the sound of a young band testing its limits and finding that it hasn't hit them yet.

"Magnificent...I've rarely heard an album that wields so many weapons — not effortlessly, but with such painstaking mastery that it's almost arduous not to be won over... 4/5" – Tiny Mix Tapes
"For a three-piece, Secret Cities lay down a whole lot of noise, but never to the point of sounding overstuffed, and they’re also lucky enough to have two top-tier vocalists. As an album, Pink Graffiti is a little schizophrenic, but it’s a rousing handful of songs... 8.0" – Paste
"...a fractured piece of music made from just about every possible sound under the sun, probably not too far off from what [Brian] Wilson’s been attempting for his entire career." – Fader "...intimate and immediately likable...It gets better and better the more you listen to it." – Stereogum
"Secret Cities manage to make chipper co-ed harmonies, acoustic jangle, and toy-like instrumental accents sound damn near subversive in their innocence. On swinging opener "Pink City", Charlie Gokey sings, "we had a lot to say, but it would take all day," a pretty accurate mission statement for an album that's got all manner of instrumental bric-a-brac but never really makes a point of stressing its bustle." – Pitchfork