Cardiff’s technicolour psych-rock heroes, Soft Hearted Scientists, bring a shot of pure audio adrenaline. “Wonder Girl,” the lead track from their upcoming album The Phantom of Canton on The Hip Replacement label, is a model of how to cram decades of musical history into a compact, riff-laden, energy-packed banger.
The band operates well-oiled, like some beautifully bizarre machine churning out walls of sound. And while everyone’s bringing their A-game, it’s songwriter and frontman Nathan Hall who’s really pulling the strings. The guy apparently dozes off to 1940s tunes every night, and you can hear it – there’s this sneaky undercurrent of old-school big band swagger and vaudeville flair that somehow fits perfectly with all the rock ‘n’ roll madness.
But hold up—this isn’t some throwback tribute band playing dress-up. SHS moves their blender to eleven, tossing in these heavenly choir sounds that’ll give you an instant buzz. Then BAM! Right in the middle-eight, they flip the whole mood on its head. These guys know their stuff and they’re not shy about showing it off. They’re bouncing between genres like pinballs, cramming it all into a tight 3-and-a-half minutes. You know who else had that kind of fearless spirit? The Beta Band. And the melodies? Pure Kinks and Beach Boys magic.
The subject, the “Wonder Girl” herself, is the enigmatic heart of the track. Is she flesh and blood? A ghost? Some impossible dream girl? It doesn’t matter. The track’s got this wild, bouncing-off-the-walls vibe that anyone who’s ever been head-over-heels can relate to. It’s what being totally, shamelessly smitten sounds like. This is exactly the kind of inventive, gutsy, and flat-out fun rock music that gets played on BBC 6 Music by the likes of Cerys Matthews and Gideon Coe.
“Wonder Girl” rockets along like a reminder of why Soft Hearted Scientists are such a gem—they’re serving up pure rock and roll escapism that hits every single mark.