Amanda and Joe Ziemba are committed: At the indie rock level, quitting your day job to focus on music fulltime is as financially risky as it gets, but the couple sold their house to do just that a few years ago. The stress of creating art to make money for room and board must be almost unbearable, but, under these circumstances, the Like Young have become a better band.
Last Secrets is their third album as a duo (they married while playing together in Wolfie), and it's easily the most robust. The songs are longer and more developed, the sound is tougher, and the musicianship has solidified substantially. Such are the benefits of tons of touring, including stints with fellow married duos Mates of State and Viva Voce.
About the only thing holding the Like Young back at this point is a lack of memorable melodies. While they've become great at layering and vocal interplay-- at times, this album sounds like the work of six people-- hooks are still elusive in their songs. "Some Closure" has a great chugging rhythm section, well-placed organ, and an interesting ambient reprise of the album's lonely organ intro "The Hell with This Whole Affair", but I can't remember a thing about what those nice two-part harmonies were doing on the chorus-- even after a dozen spins.
"Dead Eyes" does quite a bit better, crafting a brief, spiky synth-pop song around Amanda's spunky multi-tracked voice. The thing is that Joe, when singing opposite her, will often set up her more melodic vocal part with a gritty shout that doesn't have the same hooky contours. He can sing just fine-- as quieter moments, such as the odd proggy coda of "Obviously Desperate", bear this out-- but when he barks over the louder bits it doesn't come off as well.
The Like Young keep getting better by degrees, but while Last Secrets shows off some new strengths, there's still room to grow compositionally. The band's longtime devotees will find plenty to love here, but the album isn't memorable enough to make its way into most people's heavy rotation.
