Head Automatica: Certified Guilty Pleasure

Head Automatica is shameless. Sporting over-the-top pop progressions, excessively bombastic vocals, ridiculous key changes, and a live show to match, they are the prototypical candy-pop indie-rock band. Fortunately or unfortunately, this means their music is like heroin you absorb through your eardrums. It's a kind of sickly sweet, the hooks big enough to land a swordfish, and honestly I feel more than a little brainwashed when I belt out the chorus to Beating Heart Baby cruising along the highway at 60 mph. I have to give props to a frontman who was the man in a hardcore band (Glassjaw), but still has that intense pop itch he just needs to scratch, and I'm sure Daryl has endured his fair share of hatemail and negative energy from former fans because of it. Head Automatica is a band I hate to like. There's a thin line between love and loathe, isn't there?

Listen:
Beating Heart Baby
Lying Through Your Teeth
[from Propoganda|buy]