The Lied To’s is the Boston husband and wife duo of Susan Levin and Doug Kwartler, who, after a chance meeting at a folk festival, started a musical collaboration that evolved into a personal one. Now on their second album, the pair\u2019s The Lesser Of Two Evils <\/i>resonates with an Americana, country, and folk spirit that’s as well thought out as it is delivered. <\/p>\n
\u201cCruel World\u201d starts the album with a rousing mix of country and folk, before the soft and sweetly strummed \u201cMillionaire\u201d that reminds us of all the things we love about Emmylou Harris. The title tracks is a warm duet, and \u201cBuffalo\u201d continues that theme with a soulful moment that tugs on the heartstrings. Although the album has plenty of country influences, \u201cOne String\u201d is the most overtly country rock tune, and turns into a fuller, dusty anthem. <\/p>\n
The second half of the album leads with the mountain-esque sounds and vocal performance from Levin on \u201cWishing\u201d before the banjo twinkling and darker approach of the mysterious \u201cWhat Keeps Us In This World?\u201d \u201cLay Down\u201d might be the closest the band get to a ballad, as the soft keys and gentle singing unfolds like a lullaby. From there the band’s best Americana comes in the form of \u201cWindtalker,\u201d which is reminiscent of almighty Whiskeytown with its dual gender vocals and aching backdrop. Things get sparse and lovely near the end with \u201cDiamond Rain,\u201d and the album finishes similar to how it stars with the timeless, elegant sounds of the stripped back \u201cDeportee.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s no surprise that The Lesser Of Two Evils<\/i> landed at #3 on the roots music charts, as the harmonies, textures, and poetic approach here is nothing short of brilliant. For fans of artists like The Civil Wars, Gillian Welch, or even classic country, there is just so much substance to be absorbed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":33699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10306],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45520","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-lied-tos","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45520","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45520"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}