The Glorious Dead (Bonus Video Version)

The Heavy is a quartet of well-mannered lads from Noid, England. They're all deeply enamored with the musical mythos of the American South, from the primal racket of Bo Diddley and Howlin’ Wolf to the horn-dappled soul of the Stax label and the Muscle Shoals studio. The Heavy's debut was an accomplished enough affair, but it was the band's second album, The House That Dirt Built, that really caught fire. That album was propelled into international attention by the success of “How You Like Me Now?," a bit of strutting retro-funk built around a meaty sample of Dyke & the Blazers’ “Let a Woman Be a Woman.” The Glorious Dead follows hot on the heels of this success and sees The Heavy broadening its sound to capitalize on this newfound popularity. The lead single, “What Makes a Good Man,” rides in on a wave of fuzztone braggadocio before building to a delirious climax, complete with massed vocals and swooning strings. It’s all a little over the top, but that, of course, is the point. The rest of Glorious Dead is equally ambitious and uncompromising, including everything from the gutbucket Tom Waits pastiche of “Lonesome Road” to the gentle psychedelic pop of “Be Mine."