<< Back To Press Q Magazine: Heartworm, December 1995 Whipping Boy are from Dublin and have been paying their dues for the last seven years, situating their soaring yet self- lacerating anthems in what Yeats once called "the rag and bone shop of the heart.In the mists of time they were known as Lolita and the Whipping Boy but Lolita got religion and the remainder recorded a couple of largely unheralded EPS and the album Submarine before signing to Columbia.The wait has undoubtedly been worth it because there is immense melodic strength to the appropriately titled Heartworm. Fearghal McKee's sneers would be arrogance or misogyny if they weren't aimed at much at his own folly as the worlds. The band have the power and dynamics to drive McKee's explorations to frightening heights of romantic intensity, particularly on Blinded and A Natural. This kind of intensity is a rarity these days, which is why Whipping Boy could and should be huge. Mark Cooper 8/10