Album review: Dean Wareham, Emancipated Hearts (Sonic Cathedral)

If evidence were required of Lou Reed's lingering influence, this charming mini-album from the former Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham supplies plenty. Reed's literary leanings are echoed in its track titles, sourced from poems by the likes of Brecht and Betjeman, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Love Is Colder Than Death; and the drone-rock blend of jangly guitar and violin that dominates the album is directly traceable to the Velvets' "Venus in Furs". Wareham's fragile delivery imparts an eggshell vulnerability to songs that track contemporary anxieties, such as "The Deadliest Day Since the Invasion Began", but finds its natural home in the lilt of the Incredible String Band's "Air".

Download: Love Is Colder Than Death; Emancipated Hearts; Air; The Deadliest Day Since the Invasion Began