![]() Great sounds: the moonshine swirl of “Blindness” (reminiscent of Grizzly Bear’s “Marla”), James Taylor finger-picked young man against the odd’s fair “A Sea Of Roses” and the island slide guitar with cowboy troubadour-isms of “I’ve Been Loving”, are all beautifully sonic choices that help the case that this is the group’s “departure” album. The dagger is the realization it’s still our home defiled, but still ours to maintain, Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” in song form. They capture the morning after feeling of uncertainty magically, transporting us with a piano and strings to a world that’s alien. Necessarily political (aren’t we all these days?) on “Mourning In America”, TMCKs wrote the Trump-Era response to Neil Diamond’s “America”, having progressed to care more, we’re fed up with empathy and regress to apathy. Ryan and cohort Kenneth Pattengale could be the modern Mask of the Greek Muses. It's similar to the standout “Younger Years”, which displays TMCKs talent for blending dark and light, desolation and hope. An old marriage, autobiographical by accounts, the set scene built on quick moving chords, descending root notes that affect you to imagine years of emotion on the human face. Listen to the vibraphone on closing track “All The Things…”, the way it supports Joey Ryan’s attack on your heart with a tale of a relationship in decline. It is with their new album, All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do, where they begin to stretch, abandoning their strict aesthetic to include some new sounds: drums, bass, keys. Not to be misunderstood as a niche sound, TMCKs aim for commercial country with traditional song structure and Nashville production, falling short only by way of self-imposed limitations. Their impressive use of two human voices has allowed them to find quick success, but it is their knack for writing poignant lyrics of love and loss paired with emotion-painted guitar chords that have cemented their style as more than novelty: real art. An outfit entirely in the new millennium, but more stitched into the fabric of the 60’s Greenwich Village revival folk-scene. I’m listening as best I can can.Somewhere between the slow southern burn of Willie Nelson and the choral harmonies of Simon And Garfunkel sits the California duo called The Milk Carton Kids. Then you start the lifelong work of accepting what you did as valid. You make sure there’s nothing you’ll regret. I trust their instincts and will leave you with Kenneth’s own description of this record…. This album solidifies Milk Carton Kids in the pantheon of fabled duos. There is a 10 minute romp through these harmonies and guitar bravery on the “One More for the Road”, a wonderful trip through the moods of the American moment with “Mourning in America”, and a timeless heartbreaker “You Break My Heart.” Jay Bellerose has played with Ray Lamontgane, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, T-Bone Burnett and a litany of other great recording artists, and his songwise flourishes add a great deal of depth to this new Milk Carton Kids.īut the new players never get in the way of the classic songs and the overwhelming harmonies that are the meat of the album. one of my favorite drummers plays on the record. ![]() It is still the precise approach but touches of drums, bass, violin, clarinet. Their new and fourth album, All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do finds the band expanding their sound by adding a few more players to the recordings. Usually armed with only two voices and two guitars, their songs are an invitation to engage in the intricacies of the modern heart and the world that surrounds us all. ![]() Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale have found a magical musical bond that is a timeless blend of simplicity and complexity. I could listen to the Milk Carton Kids all day and night.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |