What hurts this claim is the unfulfilling opener “Just Look At Us Now” (a lovely song that merely feels like it should build better) and the overtly long “One More For The Road”, which carries on for 10 minutes trying to sell a version of minimalism that boils down to rhythm guitar/ lead guitar, completely wasting the band concept this duo was attempting. 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. With life's heavy saddle, the members rode into songs about vanishing youth, "Younger Years" and "Mourning in America," a song about social and political despair, "Hope of a Lifetime" that Kenneth wrote about a break up, and the devastating power and beauty of "Sea of Roses," which Kenneth wrote about his recent (and successful) bout with cancer during the making of their record.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. Playing 1950s guitars - Pattengale actually just got a new Martin signature guitar named for him in July - and singing like 1970s Simon and Garfunkel procreating with Crosby and Stills, The Milk Carton Kids are kids no longer. "There are more instruments on their album, but you don't need any more instruments than their two voices and their two guitars," Mountain Stage host Larry Groce said. Back on June 9, 2019, The Milk Carton Kids made its fourth appearance on Mountain Stage, heard here. Playing songs off their Joe Henry-produced album, All The Things That I Did and All The Things That I Didn't Do, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan prove it just takes two voices and two guitars to be a one-band folk revival.
0 kommentar(er)
