Mates of State- Bring It Back
My only complaint about this album is it’s not long enough.
I’m a relatively new fan of Mates of State, but that’s not going to end any time soon. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel have forged my favorite album of 2006. This album has a carefree feel to it, yet the structure is tight and powerful. Instead of using their voices to double each other, MOS tends to wrap their vocals into upbeat counter-harmonies that compliment each other incredibly well. Fine examples of this are “For the Actor” and “so many ways”.
The music itself is mainly a mixture of keyboard and drums that is complex, but never strays too far from the melody. Kori’s keyboard playing is sometimes distorted and other times clean like a grand piano, but is always lush and never abraisive. My favorite keyboard part is in “For the Actor”, but there is also great piano playing in “Nature and the Wreck”. Complimenting Kori’s lively piano playing is Jason’s drumming. Just like Ringo or Jimmy Chamberlain, Jason’s drumming is used as a melodic tool to compliment every moment of the song. The majority of this album has a driving head bobbing pace that makes one feel like they are driving through a tunnel at eighty miles an hour.
Overall this is music that ignores convention and formula like children alone on a street playing with sidewalk chalk. The album is called Bring it Back, which is exactly what they are doing. You can hear it in every second of this album. They are trying to show us what it was like to throw out all our inhibitions and just have fun creating something. What is left over is just great music that comes straight from the heart. -Tony Foster