Her Head's On Fire - Strange Desires LP

“Strangeness is a necessary ingredient in beauty.” - French Poet, Charles Baudelaire.

Her Head’s On Fire is a fierce quartet with an impressive pedigree (Garrison, Small Brown Bike, The Bomb, and Saves the Day) serving up heart-seeking post-hardcore and emotive rock with enlivening riffs and melodies. The indie rock supergroup offers their strangeness to beauty with Strange Desires, their sophomore effort and follow-up to their debut, College Rock & Clove Cigarettes.

Strange Desires deepens and expands on their first release. It has moments reminiscent of late 80s New Wave, early 90s indie, and post-hardcore peppered with poetic oddities that make the band’s music memorable.

From the gauntlet-throw of an opener “Cuts” through the swaggering sneer of “Aren’t I the Champion” to closer “The Rain,” this record is full of intentional sidewinders—smart, literate songs about the most primal feelings and experiences we share as humans.

In some ways, this increased heft is emotional. The aforementioned track, “The Rain,” is rooted in both the tragic 2021 passing of guitarist Jeff Dean’s friend and Planes Mistaken for Stars vocalist/guitarist Gared O’Donnell as well as the death of vocalist Sid Jagger’s father.

In other ways, it is sonic. Legendary producer John Agnello (Jawbox, Son Volt, Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr) mixed the record, Jeff Dean recorded it, and Jason Narducy (Superchunk, Bob Mould, Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters) co-produced it along with the band. The result is a captivating indie rock wall of sound from start to finish.