Seattle singer songwriter Andy Liotta (aka The Billie Burke Estate) has been fine tuning the art of piano pop for decades, and it comes out in here on “Let Your Heart Break.” Beginning with the opener “99 Liberty Lane,” it’s a sweet McCartney slice of sparse piano pop with manic lyric and energy. “I Want U” is a great throwback to the early 1970’s and Michael Brown’s Stories or Todd Rundgren’s early solo period. The awesome bridge and hook are powerful and draw you into the music deeper with each listen. “Everybody’s Gonna Die” has both optimism and pessimism in the same catchy song. “Perky Muscle Girl” has a lyric and harmonic acrobatics worthy of Andy Partridge, but seems to beg for a bigger production than just bass and organ. The richness of the songs continue to amaze throughout the album, “I Can Float” has a fullness in melody with synth touches that reminds me of Nik Kershaw. The ballads here have a theatrical quality, evidenced by “Dreams Come True” – you can almost picture the dancers moving to this in a full musical production. Another influence here you’ll spot is Billy Joel (“Goodbye” and “Skin”) and only on “Little Maisy” does the balladry get too maudlin. It also would’ve been nice to hear a few songs in more of a denser wall of sound, but this is a minor flaw – the song arrangements are flawless and production is superb here. I highly recommend this release.
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