Hearts of Oak is the third studio album by American indie rock band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, released on February 11, 2003 by Lookout! Records. A music video was filmed for the single "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?".
It was ranked 59th by the online magazine Pitchfork on the list of the 200 albums of the decade.
Critical reception
Hearts of Oak garnered universal acclaim from music critics highlighting Leo's musicianship in terms of lyrical content, instrumentation and vocal performance. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 17 reviews. Chris Ryan of Spin praised Leo for constructing a consistently sounding band that can conjure elements of Thin Lizzy and Dexy's Midnight Runners combined and put focus on his vocal abilities, saying that "Whether or not Leo remains contextually confined to the so-called indie slums, his horizon reaches far beyond the basement."
In 2004, Spin placed Hearts of Oak at number 14 on its list of the 40 best albums of the year 2003. Spin writer Andrew Beaujon said, "The David Mamet of indie rock, Ted Leo packs his taut punk songs with words, words, words. Words that, strictly speaking don't belong in rock, like abjure or ossify […] And despite all these words, he rocks—a skill that Mamet has never mastered. In 2009, Pitchfork ranked the album number 59 on its list of the Top 200 Albums of the 2000s. Pitchfork writer Joshua Love said that "Hearts of Oak is Ted's finest hour, packed to the gills not only with fierce, hyper-intelligent agitprop ("The Ballad of the Sin Eater" shaming Ugly Americans for all eternity), but also combustibly catchy pop-punk hooks."
Track listing
Personnel
- Ted Leo – guitar, organ, melodica, percussion, whistle, clapping, lead vocals
- Dorien Garry – electric piano, organ, background vocals
- David Lerner – bass
- Chris Wilson – drums
- Danny Leo – drums (1)
- Ida Pearle – violin, whistle, clapping
- Jodi Buonanno – clapping, whistle, background vocals
- Chris Leo – clapping, whistle, background vocals
- Tiffany Anders – backing vocals
- Kim Thompson - backing vocals
- Amy Leo - whistling, clapping
- Chris Leo - backing vocals, whistling, clapping, lead guitar (12)
- Eric Brunulf - whistling, clapping
- Pat Graham - whistling, clapping, photography
- Nicolas Vernhes - producer, recording engineer
- Samara Lubelski - recording assistant
- John Gordon - mastering engineer
- Tim Wright - whistling, clapping
- Pete Kerlin - photography