Band Of Gold
Mates Of State
Bring It Back
(Barsuk)
That Mates Of State ever made more than one album, much less escaped almost certain novelty fate, has been a minor miracle. That they’ve turned it around into something as wonderful as Bring It Back is something else.
The idea of a married couple duetting over a mix of organ and drums really shouldn’t have made it. First of all, there was already Quasi, which featured Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss and ex-hubby/former Elliott Smith bandmate Sam Coomes. Second, the Mates would lock eyes in concert and seem to forget the audience while professing love for one another. This, their fourth album, manages to take a theme you think they’d have grown tired of — working on their marriage — and continue to find beauty in their faults, as when Kori Garnder sings “I know we haven’t said enough/But I know I’ve never loved this much” on “Nature And The Wreck.”
They’ve added fabric-softening touches like the odd guitar (sounding?) lick to mix things up, but essentially Mates Of State stick to their formula with uncanny success. In a world of 50/50 divorce and, as Nick Hornby celebrated in High Fidelity, miserable pop songs, it’s nice to see something that continues to work.
— Steve Forstneger
Appearing: April 6 at Metro in Chicago.
