Indiana Taste Makers Stay Sweet On Our Tongues
Slow Down for a Listen of Husband&Wife's Dark Dark Woods
Husband&Wife
Dark Dark Woods
Released on Feb 24, 2009
The boys of Husband&Wife have been busy. No, really. It’s one thing to manage your own record label and release 16 albums from great indie bands in just over two years. It’s a completely other thing to also have a band and create some of the most honest, intricate, and mature music of your career at the same time. Fortunately for us, the Bloomington, Indiana-based band and co-owners ofCrossroads of America Records have managed to defy physics. The act of defying physics and all laws of logic while in Indiana’s borders is not unheard of (see Gary’s smell or the post-apocalyptic stretch of I-65), but to result in something aesthetically pleasing sure is.
And to say Husband&Wife’s Dark Dark Woods is aesthetically pleasing is an understatement. From the outset, a track called “Comp Jam,” Husband&Wife proves that they know how to take their time. After two minutes of static looping and gentle acoustic plucking that builds into a steady waterfall of sound, Mike Adams finally, and forcefully sings the appropriately obscure, “What do you need to go for? I don’t know.” The vocals all have a very alt-rock feel behind them, but somewhere in the mastering the cheese-factor was pulled out, which leaves the album with a tone that fills you up like a turkey dinner while putting you to sleep in the most pleasant of tryptophan-comas.
Tracks like “Support Yourself” and “Haven’t Got A Friend” are prime examples of just how mature music should sound. First, there’s the instrumentation that reveals melodies that will stick in your head for days to come. These tracks prove that Husband&Wife isn’t one of those bands that sits around and plucks out melodies on the random. They honestly understand music and are masters of their instruments. There’s a holding back in their playing that is reminiscent of a lover holding their breath, not saying precisely what is on their mind, but pointing straight at the underlying problems.
Lyrically and vocally, the band is on point in the same way. Both of the aforementioned tracks are indictments of a third party as well as a personal beg for help. “Haven’t Got A Friend” explodes with raspy vocals that walk a strange, slow line between sad and angry. “Support Yourself” is a more upbeat track whose percussion shines through with an almost Hawaiian feel that somehow is self-effacing and deprecating at once. The lyrics aren’t directed at anyone in particular and the delivery feels like he’s telling himself to grow up just as much as anyone else.
One of the greatest feats on the record is surely “I Got Fat,” whose message may make the entire album a lot more clear. This is slow, polite music with an ear for maturity and hidden self-deprecation, “I meant to turn off the television, but it stayed on the whole weekend/I meant to drive less, but a lot places are far away/And you aren’t the only one to tell me I’m wrong about love.”
Dark Dark Woods is, a polite stroll through solid tracks and enticing instrumentation from start to finish. Give it a listen for some of the most reliable music to come out right now: never over the top, always interesting, and absolutely well thought out. It’s impossible not to appreciate Husband&Wife. They’re prime examples of that majesty of Bloomington music that exists among the ever-horrifying crossroad state they hail from.
High Point
When Adams cries out “You sound like everyone else when you say you haven’t got a friend in the world” during the climax of “Haven’t Got A Friend,” it’s a cathartic experience as powerful and fulfilling as Act V of Hamlet.
Low Point
Each track is beautifully recorded, but at times the album lags just a little too much. This is a rainy day record.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Feb 24, 2009 @ 8:00 am