First appearing in 2020, Heartworms have taken time to familiarise ourselves with its world before releasing its debut album. There are indeed things to get familiar with in the work of London-born Josephine ‘Jojo’ Orme, as Heartworms blurs the lines by mixing post-punk, gothic pop, industrial coldness, rockier impulses and even a few touches of dark cabaret. We're also intrigued by the strong visual codes: black and white, a military aesthetic inherited from the Clash and photos and music videos with often very strong graphic ideas (in this respect, although Heartworms is above all a solo project, photographer and director Gilbert Trejo's work complete the music to a pointwhere he can be seen as the second member of the band).
After its short introduction, Glutton for Punishment begins with a dance. Just to Ask a Dance lays the foundations, basking in the shadows of PJ Harvey, Siouxsie Sioux and Depeche Mode while imposing a feverish post-punk urgency. There's a kind of apocalyptic theatricality in the way Jojo Orme sings of her sorrows and doubts, blending the intimate with a kind of ironic distancing. Intense, verging on an anxiety attack, Jacked hypnotises and obsesses, and while the fever rises, the temperature falls as the horizon darkens. The guitars grimace, Heartworms lets the dissonance enter and twist reality while sticking infectious choruses in our heads, assuming a catchy pop orientation as if to better distance itself from the ‘post-punk’ drawer where Orme refuses to be filed away too quickly.
In this balancing act between expressionist explosions and intimate minimalism, Heartworms plunges us into a personal monochrome labyrinth where the easy to assimilate is not reassuring (Mad Catch, whose bass full of grey rain blackens a text recited like a nursery rhyme, the heady poetry of the finale of Extraordinary Wings). Elusive electronic hallucinations like a nightmare, unifying vocal lines, a rigorous façade and a disorder that sounds like an inner collapse: it's when Heartworms mixes tones and textures to lead us astray that we're most won over (the chorus of Warplane, both galvanising and anguished, the conclusion of Smugglers Adventure).
We can feel that Glutton for Punishment is a record in the image of its creator: multiple, tormented, sometimes visceral, sometimes icy, sometimes sincere, sometimes ironic. We appreciate the whirlwind of ideas and influences, especially when everything comes together with a bang and Jojo Orme lets her madness and her shadows take control, the better to carry us along with her in this storm of creativity. It's when she's more radical and possessed that the proposition works best, whether it's uncomfortable or comforting, catchy or frightening. Giving us the impression of wandering through the artist's psyche, this first album demonstrates a strong identity, energy and refreshing elegance... So let Heartworms parasitise us, infect us and take control of our souls, it's not as if we've got anything better to do with it.
