Heatworms’ striking debut album is a modern classic, fusing post-punk, darkwave and electronic influences into nine edgy, tension-filled tracks. Never shying away from the thorny issues of the day, it tells its tales with a theatrical flourish. For all of its intensity, it delivers a compulsive floor-filling danceability that should have packed the smoke-filled dancefloors of any good alternative club night.
It’s no small compliment when I say that listening to “Glutton For Punishment” left me with a serious knot in my chest. Heartworms is the musical alias of 26-year-old Jojo Orme, and she prides herself on this fractured, often dread-inducing discourse within the songs she creates. Her 2023 EP “A Comforting Notion” was a brief encapsulation of Heartworms’ pronounced style—a mashup of dark post-punk and hardcore industrial, but it left Orme feeling bogged down by the genre-defining expectations it set in place. Instead, “Glutton For Punishment” is a dilated full-length debut, rooting itself in the minimalist aesthetics of late ‘90s UK dance and carving paths into amenable pop hooks while retaining that atmosphere of overall chaos and emotional discomfort. Standout tracks like “Jacked” and “Warplane” are a far cry from the sounds of her EP.
Orme sings about the haunting effects of war-torn violence, the flawed perspective of the human condition and the many shattered relationships she’s faced throughout her life, draped behind sharp, stinging guitars and ethereally warped techno beats. Orme elaborated on the musical growth Heartworms underwent in crafting the debut record saying: “With my EP, people kind of pigeonholed me into post-punk. I was like, ‘Cool, I can do that, but I can also do way more’—I can do post-punk, but I can also be poppy and catchy, and this album represents that. I think people might be surprised when they hear it.”
“It is rare to see artists come bolting out the gate with such a strong identity, but here is someone who knows exactly who they are, what they want, and still daring to achieve more.”
The Fat Angel Sings 