Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

Boy meets girl. Boy and girl like each other’s music. Boy and girl start going to each other’s shows. Boy and girl start dating. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl make music (among other things) together. Boy and girl sell lots of records and become adored by many.

That’s the story of The Weepies, the duo of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen (and now a little Weepie that was just recently born). After a somewhat successful debut Happiness and great success with their sophomore Say I Am You, everybody’s favorite married band just released their third LP Hideaway. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Hideaway, and upon receiving the album last week, I have not been disappointed.

There’s an indescribable charm and enchantment that The Weepies have. Both Tannen’s and Talan’s have elegant, soft-spoken natures to their voices that give these pop-folk tunes a real gentleness to them. And when these voices harmonize, it’s sheer ecstasy–plain and simple. But accompanying those voices is some real intellect. The Weepies love wordplay (”Old Coyote”), and are able to evoke certain imagery with such beautiful vividness and poignancy that you can’t help but succumb to their sounds.

Nonetheless, The Weepies don’t skimp on the melodies either. “How You Survived the War” has an achingly sweet chorus that is achieved through a delicate acoustic guitar and light strings chirping in the background. “Antarctica” is perhaps the most devilishly pop-saturated song on this album, with wonderful layered guitars and steady rhythmic percussions. The lead single “All Good Things” may not be the highlight on this album in my opinion, but it is so fantastically catchy that you’ll be singing its chorus for several days. And the album closer “All This Beauty” is perfectly placed, sounding as if Deb and Steve gathered all the melodies they used in the album and bringing them together for one last hurrah for the most accessible and most delightful song on the album.

If this album was good enough to elicit the first ‘long’ post of the year for me, then you know it’s good. GET Hideaway now!

Listen to “All This Beauty” (5/5)

Listen to “Antarctica” (5/5)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 1:16 pm and is filed under The Weepies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.