It has been five years and lots of road miles since married couple
Sarah Lee Guthrie and
Johnny Irion released their previous duo album, but both have been busy with other projects. From the opening track it's clear that the twosome have decided to explore a lush, dreamy, and classic pop and country style than the more traditionally folksy approach that informed their previous work. Perhaps that was a reaction to being influenced by the music of alternative roots band
Vetiver.
Irion not only invited frontman
Andy Cabic to contribute backing instrumentation, but he co-produced the sessions along with
Vetiver's producer
Thom Monahan. The rest of that band also contributes to the music, so similarities to its
Tight Knit release are inevitable. Longtime friend
Gary Louris and his
Jayhawks co-founder
Mark Olson also appear and help move the sound away from a strictly strummy approach. Most of the songs were recorded with the band and vocalists playing together with minimal overdubs. The result is a sublime, wistful set made even more intimate by
Guthrie and
Irion's delicate voices. As has been mentioned before, there is no escaping
Irion's
Neil Young infatuation, especially in the closing title track that sounds like an outtake from
After the Gold Rush. Most of the album, though, focuses on tuneful, rootsy folk pop that, like "Hurry Up and Wait," connects with hummable melodies that sink in after a single spin. The tunes often build up from a skeletal beginning to full accompaniment as they progress. Comparisons to
She & Him are natural since
Irion and
Guthrie seem to be headed in a similar retro-pop musical direction and the latter's fragile voice is comparable to Zooey Deschanel's. Occasional pedal steel, most obvious on the soaring
Dylan-ish "Seven Sisters" and the swirling "Target on Your Heart," adds a sublime touch entirely in keeping with the country-tinged songs. A drum machine that might be acceptable when stripping down the instrumentation on the road is somewhat out of place on "Dupont Circle," its strict minimalist waltz-time beat marring an otherwise organic session. A few tunes, such as the fluttering "Butterflies" and the fluffy "First Snow" are so feathery they nearly float away, but this is a generally an engaging and skillfully conceived project that takes
Guthrie and
Irion's natural folk roots and expands on them without losing their natural, and in
Guthrie's case familial, thread to the past. ~ Hal Horowitz