Joe McCorriston: Fix Your Hearts
(Self Released)
CD/DL/Streaming
Out Now
Singer-songwriter Joe McCorriston returns after 8 years with a new album, Fix Your Hearts.
London living, Morecambe born Joe McCorriston is back with his first release of new material since 2018’s Existence. Familiarity. At that point, still in his very early 20’s, McCorriston had been touring excessively since his mid-teens playing ‘pop songs for punk kids’ under the patronage of the likes of Frank Turner and building up something of a cult following.
In the interim, after briefly falling out of love with music, he’s been writing short stories, acting and been on a journey of rediscovery…
Fix Your Hearts hasn’t been rushed, recorded with producer and friend, the UK Americana artist Dave Giles, over 18 months in 2024 and 2025. It mixes personal, reflective tracks with more upbeat numbers. Musically, McCorriston’s influences are on show across the record, from Billy Joel to Bob Dylan, with McFly thrown in for good measure, the variety being the glue that holds it all together as he delivers arguably his strongest album, awash with catchy melodies.
The album is bookended by The Sea, the title perhaps a nod to his hometown. Both are simple pieces of little over a minute, but with an optimism that assures you the singer is in a good place. The opening piano-led number, although short, is one of my favourite tracks, with its underlying harmonies and backing vocals unlike anything the artist has delivered before. With hardly a pause for breath, the reflective Signs is a more familiar piece, with Turner-ish gusto and with moments that cry out for audience participation.
Escape From Reality, released as a teaser for the album in 2025, is McCorriston’s first dancefloor banger and, in the right hands, could be remixed into a club banger. Angelina, despite being one of the shortest tracks on the album, packs a hell of a lot in and sees the artist in particular fine vocal form on what he describes as his ‘Green Day song’. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s more traditional fare for long-term fans, especially those who first found McCorriston via 2016’s The Party We Came For.
Rom-Com leads into Liquid Remedy, the first of the singles lifted from Fix Your Hearts, but also one of the earliest recorded. It also includes one of the singer’s most profound lyrics, informed by issues which lead to the gap between recordings. ’There’s a bar at the end of the world, only serving memories, presented by our enemies.’
Staying In L.A. is another departure from McCorriston’s previous recordings, it’s West Coast’ vibe being influenced by the TV show Californication build around a call and response element inspired by the dynamic of the central characters. If Dear You feels like it’s been part of the repertoire for years, then there is a good reason. Upon listening to Fix Your Hearts a couple of times, it sounded familiar, and then I realised it’s possibly the oldest song on the record, albeit bolstered from what would have been a more stripped-down and acoustic number. A definite highlight of the collection.
Ahead of the aforementioned closing coda of The Sea are Life’s A Bitch and Romance & Glory, which are essentially two sides of the same coin. The former’s sentiment of ‘At times I feel the prison guard has thrown away my key, Now I’m helpless, please come and save my life, to the latter’s, ‘I know there’s a new world preparing for me, I’m ready to reach for all that I can be’.
Fix Your Hearts is an album of rejuvenation, ending with the talented singer-songwriter looking forward and postiove abouth the future. Let’s hope it doesn’t take him another bloody 8 years before his next collection.
Find Joe McCorriston via his LinkTree
Listen to Iain Key chatting to Joe McCorriston for Louder Than War Radio here
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him via his LinkTree
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