Deliciously gentle-paced and languid, warmly twangy and romantically nostalgic, poetic indie-country-rock by the New York band of spouses vocalist Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas, with delicate musical echoes of Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, REM, Neil Young, Yo La Tengo and Cat Power in this finely crafted seventh LP. Here they delve into romance by way of deep realism and poetic minutiae detail, highlighting modern life’s repetition and restlessness, expressing low-key muted pain, frustration, yet endurance. Recorded in the hills of Hydra, a small Greek Saronic island, it’s their most unpruned album yet, playfully meandering, full of wry observation. The Hook is a wistful opener about preserving relationship memories (“Pressed all your carnations In a black book / Taped our song off the college station /That was all it took / I was pulled in by the hook”), No Driver moves into an automobile metaphor, the romantic title track captures the mutability of love, and instant standout If You Change then rolls out with dark turns, and catchy twangs like an REM classic. Wondering, set in a diner, is reminiscent of a slow, smoky, minimalist band found in a scene from a David Lynch movie. Another standout, Soft Cover, thrums and jangles with further nostalgia and faint echoes of a number by Chris Isaacs: “Still love you like it’s all brand new /I’m too caught up in you /Pull me close like the dancers do, /I’m too caught up in you” Closer Hourglass rolls through arpeggios like a slow last dance with lingering, hovering, feedback guitar. “Can’t hold too tight or I’ll have nothing, / Like a candy melts in your hand.” Classy and minimalist, this is a beautifully understated, melancholy swoon of a record. Out on Captured Tracks.
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