On their self-titled eleventh album of new songs, the sad roots-pop pioneers also try some hard and noisy ways.
Must hand it to the Avett Brothers with at least two views. Long before the likes of Noah Kahan, they set the table for the sad-Americana-boy genre, churning out heavy songs that lie somewhere between the mountains and the suburbs. (They've become such a brand that they've appeared in Gap ads.) And to their credit, they've never been content to be just another sedate wildcard act: a trend that, as heard on The Avett Brotherstheir eleventh studio album, it can still reward them as much as it can trip them up.
When it comes to serenades as formal as an Appalachian funeral — which they began perfecting in 2009 Me and Love and You, their first of many collaborations with producer Rick Rubin — the Avetts have few equals in the chamber-folk realm. Opening with wordless vocals and strings, “Never Apart” is another of their sweetly neglected epics. Building a head of steam over the course of seven minutes, “Cheap Coffee” is a touching catalog of regrets, like missing a baby's first steps, and “2020 Regret,” another song about “Pissing it all away,” has the trademark of their elegiac sobriety. inside this.
Carrying on another tradition – replacing their acoustic instruments with electric ones – the Avetts also want to prove that they're boys who just want to have fun. “Orion's Belt” is a seasoned approach to the type of record Tom Petty would have gone on to make had he not passed. But other off-ramps find them in tense territory. “Country Kid” is a modern version of John Denver's “Thank God I'm a Country Boy” which was even funny afterward. (In the categories of dubious distinctions, it might also be the first pop song to mention Winnie the Pooh since Kenny Loggins' “House at Pooh Corner.”) And if you've ever wondered what a theme song for a sitcom might sound like emo folkies, “Love of a Girl” hockey is here to serve it up.
These kinds of fluctuations between the official and the silly are every band's prerogative. But they're especially jarring with the Avetts, since their darkest moments are ultimately their most characteristic. When they wrap things up with “We Are Loved,” the results are more sinister than usual. But for these guys, at least it reaffirms the importance of still being serious.
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