Have Heart Songs To Scream At The Sun LP
#B9R096

Release Date: 07/08/2008

Songs To Scream At The Sun was recorded with Kurt Ballou of Converge at God City Studios. Combining Ballou's signature grit and style of record with Have Heart's style of music - results in a dichotomy of clean, sharp drums and a variety of guitar tones and sounds that combined - do not hint at one particular or obvious influence. Musically, there are moments that are mid-tempo and melodic, there are moments that are classic hardcore anthems, and it's balanced with times that are dark and atmospheric. It's an impressive accomplishment.

As frontman Pat Flynn said, Songs To Scream At The Sun is a coming-of-age story. It's about the growing process of a young kid shaking the chains of selfishness, but it's everything about what you lose and gain in that process of growing up. The songs have an honest, yet poetic reflection that digs deep into the private lives that are shared by everyone-the deconstruction and dismantling of one's life and the eventual rebuilding and rebirth. This is at times dark and depressing, but Flynn's lyrics never lose hope in what allows people to get strength in these situations. And what's so strong about the performance and lyrics, aside from the cliché of hardcore singers "meaning what they say" is the perception of the lyrics-are they dark, depressing, positive, or hopeful? - is up to the listener to decide.

The first pressing of Songs To Scream At The Sun came in an expanded, gatefold LP jacket.  Subsequent pressings were packaged in a standard LP jacket.  A barcode was added to the back of the jacket with the 5th and subsequent pressings.  Also of note, the center labels for the 2nd pressing, on translucent green vinyl, is the only variant to have a white border around it until the 12th pressing, all other pressings have a full ink bleed on the label. 

For the 10th anniversary of this album, we realized that we still had 300 unused gatefold LP jackets left over from the original first pressing back in 2008, and they had been sitting in our warehouse for the past decade.  In what is now the 10th pressing, we had just 300 LPs pressed on a red/clear swirl "pink smoke" vinyl, to match them up with the gatefold jackets and gave those lucky 300 mail-order customers a special cover upgrade.

For the 11th pressing, we went with a "blue smoke" vinyl, similar to the red smoke 10th pressing.  This pressing is distinguished by having wisps of blue streaks throughout.

The 12th pressing was a special all-silver edition, as part of Bridge Nine’s 25th Anniversary label silver series.

In 2024, Bridge Nine commemorated Have Heart’s return to the stage with a new pressing. New test presses had to be made, and five different variants were made, which were exclusively available from Bridge Nine, the band at Sound & Fury and in Boston, RevHQ, Project M (Revolver, Brooklyn Vegan, Alt Press), and Coretex in Berlin, Germany.

Track Listing:
1. The Same Son
2. Bostons
3. Pave Paradise
4. On That Bird In The Cage
5. Brotherly Love
6. No Roses, No Skies
7. The Taste Of The Floor
8. Reflections
9. Hard Bark On The Family Tree
10. The Same Sun