Andrew Kenny wrote the songs that became the Wooden Birds' hushed 2009 debut, Magnolia, before assembling a band to play them. Though the former American Analog Set leader has since played about 150 shows with a standard bass-drums-guitar quartet, he again handles all the instruments himself on the second Wooden Birds record, conceived after a relocation from Brooklyn to Austin. Kenny even still taps the drums out on the body of his acoustic guitar. More important than Two Matchsticks' simplicity, though, are its songs, lessons of life and love conveyed in clear, unadorned language.
Kenny eases the songs out as parables, meant for consideration at length. Over a plain click-clack rhythm and sharp acoustic strums, "Criminals Win" tells how sometimes bad things happen to good people; lovers quarrel when they should be kissing, honest people work when they should be living, and bad guys win when they should be falling. "Too Pretty to Say Please" is a series of desperate observations on a lover who's never content with her counterpart; its spartan sonic set-up affords a certain freshness to Kenny's laments, as though he were too busy considering romantic wounds to write orchestra charts or to fuss over guitar tone. Indeed, time and again during Two Matchsticks, Kenny plays the part of the tour guide who's been here before: He's seen the co-dependence of the title track, the desolation of "Cross My Heart", and the leap-of-faith moment of "Struck by Lightning". At his best, Kenny is relaxed, direct, and relatable, sounding more empathetic than didactic.
Kenny isn't entirely without collaborators on Two Matchsticks. The sweet croon of Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard adds an appropriate measure of redemption to "Warm to the Blade", a song about pushing past heartbreak and finding new meaning. Matt Pond PA's Matt Pond, who plays guitar and sings in the band's live iteration, duets with Kenny on "Be No Lie", turning the steely-eyed lament into the sort of romantic warning that would have fit on Elliott Smith's XO. And former American Analog Set guest vocalist Leslie Sisson, another onstage guitarist/singer for the Wooden Birds, takes the lead on "Baby Jeans", a charming take on a high-school crush. Patient, generous, and smart, the song proves that while Kenny does well to maintain the Wooden Birds' solitary core, he does well to expand it occasionally, too.
