Anders and Kendall - Wild Chorus

by Andrew Carver

published: 25 / 3 / 2013

Label: Nine Mile Records
Format: CD

Sweetly melancholic indie pop on debut album from American male-female vocal duo, Anders and Kendall

Review

Anders Parker, formerly of Varnaline, and Kendall Meade have a lengthy history together. Meade, a Spinanes and Sparklehorse collaborator, has worked on all of Parker's post-Varnaline projects, so putting an album together as a Lee-and-Nancy style duo was entirely natural. Parker’s scuffed indie rock voice and Meade’s cleaner pipes work well together, either trading lines, as in ‘We’re On Fire, Babe’, the organ fuelled leadoff to ‘Wild Chorus’ (named after the analog studio where its 11 songs were laid down), or harmonizing on closer ‘The Sun Will Shine Someday’. A bunch of excellent, largely Knoxville-based indie rock vets have been roped in to provide a slightly woodsy, moderately crunchy backing. Among the players are Guided By Voices' Doug Gillard, and Royal Bangs' keyboardist Ryan Schaefer. The sound is not unlike a Smalltown, U.S.A. answer to Belle and Sebastien. The atmosphere is usually laid back, with brushed drums and a stately tempo, though some, such as ‘Across the Years’ and the sunnily upbeat ‘Let’s Get Lost’ motor along with hand-clapping vigour. Fans of such albums as the recent collaborations between Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, the backwoods folk of Bon Iver or Kathleen Edwards will find ‘Wild Chorus’ hitting many of the same sweet spots

Track Listing:-

1 We're On Fire, Babe
2 City Of Greats
3 Let's Get Lost
4 Across The Years
5 Sleepwalking
6 Dreamers On The Ground
7 Can You Forgive Me
8 Gettin' Ready
9 Oh, Love
10 Play It
11 The Sun Will Shine Again Someday