“‘Hold On To Your Heart’ is about finding a pinhole of light in the dark and turning it into the sun. We really did shoot for the stars with this one.” When Murray Macleod, the frontman of The XCERTS, surmises the band’s new album, it’s with the same wild-eyed enthusiasm and passion with which he pens sing-along modern pop anthems infused with a thick layer of 80s heartland rock.

Hold On To Your Heart is a bold, pure love letter to a bygone era inked by a sentimental hopeless romantic. Buoyed by the response to There is Only You, the band’s astonishing, life-affirming 2014 third album, The XCERTS were invigorated and inspired to created a 10-track love-letter to hope, belief and aspiration.

The album chronicles Macleod’s descent into the dark and his determination to crawl back into the light. The band looked to the classics as a vessel with which to deliver these songs; shying away from contemporary influences and digging into the deep-rooted rich tapestry once weaved by Springsteen and Petty, The XCERTS throw-back to more innocent times, where the boy gets the girl and lives happily ever after.

They yearn for a simpler time where dreams were made for living. “We were trying to capture the ending of The Breakfast Club. It’s about that feeling of wanting to be outside and experiencing life; don’t sit in your house looking at the girl on Facebook, go get the girl!”