In Heartbeats and Brainwaves, Electric Six tries to extricate itself, but also can’t quite pull itself away, from the now-worn unabashed manliness of its early days. Electric Six is older now, and evidently getting tired of the testosterone rock trimmings that long underpinned its popularity. This is surprising for a band that once reveled in dumbness. At one point in the track, frontman Dick Valentine sings I’m the king of the submarines / making terrible music for teens.
Heartbeats and Brainwaves’ opener “Psychic Visions” seemingly constitutes an admission of wrongdoing. And so its catalog, while sometimes addictive, largely lacks in lyrical heft. But by catering to each of these rivaling demographics, the band offers little substance to either. So, if you love Electric Six, you are one of two things: a hipster-literate cynic who sneers at stereotypical frat bros, or a stereotypical frat bro. Its message is that concertedly manly men are really just overcompensating. In contrast, “Gay Bar,” with almost 20 million hits on YouTube, greatly differs from Electric Six’s more popular songs by gleefully lambasting male sexual insecurities by blending manly vocals with nonsensically homoerotic lyrics. Songs like “Danger! High Voltage” and “Body Shot,” on one hand, glorify primal dance floor scenes of fearless sexuality. Though Heartbeats and Brainwaves features an assortment of somewhat engaging tracks, the album as a whole is riddled with poorly crafted songwriting and mutedly phallocentric motifs.