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Feb 07, 2025 Web Exclusive By Matt the Raven

Heartworms’ debut album, Glutton For Punishment, follows her electrifying single, “May I Comply,” and tantalizing EP, A Comforting Notion, which both made a splash in 2023. The new album is an excellent extension of the haunting and exhilarating rock heard on those releases and is an absolutely perfect cannonball featuring vibrant sounds, dynamic arrangements, and equally striking vocals.

Jojo Orme, the mastermind behind the project, weaves a tapestry of post-punk, goth, and industrial influences into an unusually ambitious debut LP that is both raw and polished and contains a whirlwind of sound with brooding synth melodies, catchy beats, softly soaring guitar riffs, and moody sonic textures. All bolstered by the icy smooth vocals of Orme that are equally diverse and always captivating—even evoking occasional goosebumps—with sophisticated and sensual expressions that conjure the spirits of PJ Harvey, Siouxsie Sioux, Kate Bush, and Shirley Manson rolled into a freshly singular voice that is wholly Orme’s.

The nine songs on Glutton For Punishment prove Orme is a talented stylist and gifted songwriter who incorporates the perfect balance of tension and release by creating layered and sophisticated songs filled with a taut mix of razor sharp guitars and electronic loops and effects polished up with agit-pop smarts and vocals that are both haunting and mesmerizing. Standout tracks such as “Jacked,” “Extraordinary Wings,” and “Warplane” are a frantic escape from the confines of reality that leave us with a sense of awe and wonder, having witnessed the power that music has to transport us to extraordinary places. Other superb tracks include the creepily slinky “Mad Catch” and the big sounding, prog-influenced “Just to Ask a Dance.”

There are plenty of toe-tapping and rocked out moments on the album that will grab your attention immediately, but repeated plays will be rewarded by revealing an uncompromising fusion of energetic guitars, crisp electronic synths, and ultra-cool textures coupled with chameleonic vocals that shift effortlessly from sweet and sexy to fiery and fierce.

Glutton For Punishment—meticulously produced by Dan Carey—is a breath of fresh air that plays like a walk through a haunted woodland, where shadows dance and strange creatures lurk and has potential to be a classic for years to come. (www.iamheartworms.com)

Author rating: 9/10