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Rating: Anyone who saw me for months going to work seated on the train with my iPod headphones in my ears and my lips moving in rhythm with the tracks, while I struggled to keep my body still, couldn't know I was listening to this delightful album. Too bad for them...
No point beating around the bush: I like it because it's pop, but it rocks, because it's a varied and pleasant album, full of songs that stay with you and make your heart and body move. The recipe for these roughly 50 minutes of good music is simple: Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel from San Francisco, husband and wife, two voices singing and harmonizing, searching for each other, overlapping, accompanied by the sound of ample organ, a piano, and drums. That's right, no bass and guitar: limiting, but courageous. "I won't listen to an album without bass!" you might say, and you'd have a point, but the trick is in blasting the ultra-distorted organ and the groove is guaranteed, seeing is believing.
No need to bring up the White Stripes: we are in totally different territory, definitely more pop, but of a tangled kind. It's a duo that has the ability to craft tracks that start sunny and then envelop you in a fog bank (the opening "Think Long," which at its peak turns from a midtempo ballad to a martial stride), irresistibly catchy and danceable (the essential "Fraud In The '80s," "For The Actor," "Punchlines"), yet all with that anthemic inclination that forces you to sing the choruses out loud ("Beautiful Dreamer," "Nature And The Wreck," "So Many Ways"). Greatly contributing is a simple, yet rich writing style (who said Beatles-esque?), where the organ's sound opens melodic spaces otherwise hard to reach, thanks also to the choral use of voices, reminiscent of punk.
It would be too biased of me not to admit that one of the main limitations of this album is the drum sound which often feels just thrown in there: years of listening to rock make you understand that if you insist on using only the snare drum without touching the toms, you need the bass for support, period. This stylistic choice necessitates filling in with something else, which can be a counterpoint vocal part or an organ chime: after a while, needless to say, the trick becomes predictable and a bit tiring. Not that all this undermines the overall enjoyment, but it leaves room for doubt that if they freed themselves from these limitations, they'd achieve even higher quality work, since they have all the credentials to do well as 'Mates Of State.'
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Think Long (04:44)
On our picture shelves.
(Get on, or get out)
Statues mocking me.
How am I supposed to feel?
How am I not put at ease?
Talk yourself to sleep.
Fall into it deep.
I will wash off mine with rolling waves of worry.
It doesn't have to feel so wrong.
Bethany you're riding this one to its grave (the gates).
You never understood the difference between someone's beating and refusal to trade
Bless these tangled veins.
(Get on, or get out).
None of which will grow the same.
Now am I supposed to fake it?
Now are you so poised, at ease?
Think long, think, thinkg long, think think.
Can you feel it surround me?
I think it'll drown me.
And I wonder how you could say that we (you) really owe you (us) anything.
Think long, think, think long, think think.
03 Like U Crazy (03:58)
I like you crazy.
You crazy.
Ahhh, I'm suffering lonely ones too, and I can't resist sending/saying this on a whim.
Ahhh, there's a compulsion to mend.
Write on the wall, my loudest pen goes.
I can't wait to say all the things you can't see, all the things that make you better.
'Cause I can say all the things that make you.
I like you crazy.
You crazy.
Hot summers repeating.
Bubs noticing bees in the air.
Won't get off this rail, then great hope remains honestly.
Observing the critic, I knew you had plenty to say.
I could not resist watching you with him.
I can't wait to say all the things you can't see that make you better.
I like you crazy.
04 Beautiful Dreamer (04:39)
You're spending too long.
The people were wrong.
They don't even know we're moving on.
I just want to feel the taste of the meal, and not the routine of dining here.
We'll be so sorry, if we got to the shadow of death having missed all the sun on your face.
It's thrilling for you now.
Na na na na na na na na na.
We do it all the time, do all the time.
We're the dreamer in the beautiful mess.
I just want to feel the taste of the meal, and not the routine of dining here.
Let's lay here awhile.
All the sounds will compile.
Forgetting to sleep, we ponder this.
Here's an alibi.
We love the voices don't know why.
There was a time we lived in truth.
Let's bring it back.
05 What It Means (02:25)
I know what it means.
It's a king on his feet with a cavalier face, such a funny place.
He's exhausted and shrewd, not a man on the move.
Just give him a pen.
And I can honestly say no.
As he can honestly fight.
And this red ink ain't dry, 'cause this cloth it's not right.
Where you coming from?
But this day it will end, gather up all his friends and show-off a smile.
06 For the Actor (04:33)
Oh, you and me on a fantasy.
This is what it's like on a fantasy.
No, I wouldn't challenge your home.
In the basement of words we knew, there were more of us.
Don't want to make you grow numb.
If it's not what you thought it was, legs are for discovering.
Relieved and now we see the road.
This is what's like on a fantasy.
Little codes bring the balance to none.
And the shapes of your hands do tell of such a rare variety.
You put your life on hold as we interest one another.
Two steps closer to the level I imagined.
I remember when it poured and you sang to me in summer.
It's a fantasy.
07 Nature and the Wreck (02:22)
Lying down I notice what you see below us.
Your arms are like the trees.
I know I haven't said enough.
I know we haven't said enough.
How I will protect, and how each day matters.
Spying shows your limbs caught in the rails.
These simple games will soon be growing tales.
And I know we haven't said enough.
I know I haven't said too much.
How I will protect and how each day matters to me.
Since the wreck, I know more what you need.
You need me to put you in the trees.
I know we haven't said enough but I know I've never loved this much.
08 So Many Ways (03:56)
There are only so many ways to earn your own surprise.
I know we're giving up too soon.
There are only so many ways to float upon the sea.
It makes no difference to me.
It must be pretty nice my fellow man.
We'll miss you much.
I think we overestimate our places underground.
Ooo, done.
Dust.
There are only so many ways to earn your own surprise.
It's written down and cannot be changed, if that's what you believe.
I know we're giving up too soon.
I'm never coming here again.
It makes no difference to me.
There are only so many ways to float upon the sea.
Or collapse on Union Street, I know that you'll be there.
I know there's beauty in the fool.
So I'll keep reminding you'll agree.
It must be pretty nice within your clan, I'll miss you much.
Nothing and everything.
Oh, oh what have you given me?
Nothing and everything.
Done.
09 Punchlines (03:53)
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines you've been saving up for some 90 years
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines take pity on me
It's not the same without you around
It's not the same without you
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines you've been saving up for some 90 years
Waiting close by the door for us
Can't hardly see out but if you could
You'd make it all worth our while
Punchlines take pity on me
It's not the same without you around
It's not the same without you
I've been thinking it's an afterthought
Get into the car and you aim it at the sun, boy
Can't you hear me in the aftermath
Get into the car and you point it at the west
10 Running Out (06:51)
You have the upper hand to open up the door
Running out, running out.
Running out shouldn't give youth back.
I have a hardened chain connected to my arms.
Running out, shouldn't pull apart.
Let's trade this tired home, for all it's worth in paper.
Running out, you react.
Tired of singing.
Oooh oooh oooh.
You're tied up, (never) tied of singing.
Tired of singing.
Revolutionary minds, never know to draw the line.
Running out, like a fire so sweet.
This will bring you closer (you want it).
Imitating Bransby imitating them.
This will bring you closer, never have to say it.
Tired of singing.
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