Life Is Large<\/i><\/a> was one of the better indie discs of that decade, you may feel a bit let down. There\u2019s little pop here, and even less power.<\/p>\nThe Kennedys have been making music together for the better part of two decades now, since aspiring Austin, Texas singer Maura met guitarist Pete while he was on the road with Nanci Griffiths. The intervening years have seen them issue 10 studio albums while touring steadily, nurturing a modest but faithful following for their unabashedly sincere tunes.<\/p>\n
Closer Than You Know<\/i>\u2019s opening track \u201cWinter\u201d more or less defines the word \u201cairy\u201d with a circular, strummed acoustic guitar pattern, layered background vocals and Maura\u2019s breathy lead vocals blanketing the top of the gauzy mix. With \u201cRhyme And Reason,\u201d the production is more straightforward, but only serves to underscore the heart of my problem with this disc: a song so precious it lacks even a hint of grit or fire. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that the edges have been sanded off this music; there simply aren\u2019t any edges at all. Moving through the next few tunes (\u201cI\u2019ll Come Over,\u201d \u201cCradle To A Boat,\u201d \u201cSigh\u201d), you get the sense that the duo has veered fully into new age \/ easy listening territory, sounding more like Judy Collins than the Byrds. There\u2019s a place in the world for this kind of delicate, understated music, to be sure\u2014it\u2019s just not what I personally am looking for when I put on a Kennedys record.<\/p>\n
\u201cHome\u201d goes for a haunting quality, as Maura\u2019s undeniably gorgeous vocals float above a synth wash, but the song never achieves any kind of momentum; it just flows and flows and ends. \u201cMarina Dreams\u201d adds rhythm and texture\u2014there\u2019s even a bit of country-western giddy-up in Pete\u2019s rhythmic guitar playing\u2014but ultimately this feels as precious and sing-songy as \u201cRhyme And Reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point I\u2019m starting to wonder if perhaps the tail may be wagging the dog, musically. The Kennedys have never been in a position to tour regularly with a band; they\u2019ve almost always gone on stage as an acoustic duo\u2014and Closer Than You Know<\/i> features a lot of songs that would translate relatively easily to that live format. Have their songwriting and arranging choices gone in an easy listening direction because that\u2019s what works in their live configuration? This suspicion grows when Pete switches to electric for \u201cMade Of Sand,\u201d yet the arrangement remains minimalist.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Ironically, the duo deliver a tribute to power-pop icon Alex Chilton (\u201cBig Star Song\u201d) that arrives in the form of a gentle folk-pop tune (is there even a kick-drum on this album?). It\u2019s followed by what\u2019s probably the album highlight, a sparkling country-folk cover of U2\u2019s \u201cWild Honey.\u201d Closing things out, \u201cWinter Lies\u201d finds Maura harmonizing with herself, a pretty effect, but for this listener it simply emphasized what an insular, languid album this is. <\/p>\n
My own hopes and expectations for this album obviously colored my reaction to Closer Than You Know<\/i>.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely true that your mileage may vary\u2014I can only report that mine fell short of where I was hoping to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":31070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6063],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-42754","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-kennedys","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52057,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42754\/revisions\/52057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42754"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42754"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}