OK, synths are great, but it's unlikely the guitar will loosen its hegemony on rock anytime soon. So the odds Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, the organ-and-drums duo that goes by Mates of State, will create a mutiny with their cuddly AM pop are slim to nil. Facing improbable odds hasn't dampened the plucky twosome's spirit, but it has wizened them up. On Bring It Back, their fourth album, they gingerly lift the moratorium on six-strings-- a few lurk in the background throughout the record-- and explore a more varied sonic palette. The fattened sound, however, doesn't mean an altered band, just a better one.
Mates of State have always been fascinated by the dark, haunted corners of glistening pop melodies, and Bring It Back finds their fixation vibrant as ever. Gardner plays a Yamaha Electone organ from circa 1970, which produces wet, hollow sounds rich in spooky overtones. On previous efforts, the slinky loop that opens "Think Long" would've constituted the track's sole melody. Simple lines, left alone, echoing large-- they were Broadcast before Broadcast were Broadcast. But Bring It Back features Mates of State's fullest songs, and many of their longest. The added length lets them be characteristically piecemeal-- "We attach parts together until they make a whole song," they claim on their website-- while deeper orchestration provides the adhesive previous efforts lacked.
If "Proofs", from 2000's My Solo Project, represents one possible (and thrilling) result of the couple's chemistry, Bring It Back suggests another. When the latter paired a spare, roomy drumbeat with a loping, calliope-style organ line and impassioned vocal teamwork, two was the magic number. New album opener "Think Long", meanwhile, takes along third and fourth wheels with overdubbed keyboard harmonies, accessory percussion, and multi-tracked vocals. By the group's previous standard, "For the Actor", which makes a joyous racket of music box twinkles and gilt trumpet, would be considered perfidious. Atop a surfeit of accoutrements, it offers the album's most guitar-like sound: the same distorted Rhodes piano feint Sufjan Stevens used to scuzz up his Trans-Siberian orchestral "Detroit".
Gardner has a flair for linear, almost arpeggiated combinations of notes, and her keyboard parts give Mates of States' songs a light, sweeping quality. But on "Nature and the Wreck", a delicate piano line gusts so heavily it almost blows away. Luckily, they keep it brief, allowing the track to work as a placeholder. Gardner incorporates a husky Steinway more tastefully on "Like U Crazy", the lungs to "Nature and the Wreck"'s heart. Offsetting the track's vapory piano descend, Gardner's little-voice-that-could coos atop a rickety, rim-clicking beat. "I-I-I-I like u crazy," she hooks, but her breathy falsetto vowels are all that matter. Weakened knees collapse entirely when Hammel starts in with the blue-eyed wop-wop-oooos, turning the track into an unlikely Righteous Brothers homage, which is good news for everyone. Meanwhile, check how the bass propels the vocal hook on "Beautiful Dreamer" and you'll be seeing Stars (not the thing, the Canadian pop juggernaut), who also specialize in galloping, lovesick refrains. "For the Actor" not only imitates that band's joyous gait but their penchant for sudden, shattered breakdowns, too.
Atop whimsical keys instead of chugging axes, Gardner's heart-in-hands vociferations listen less like blustery emo and more like...heart-in-hands vociferations. Which answers the question, What are sickeningly cute young couples good for if not making pop records? Producing them, of course. Seriously, if Gardner and Hammel could use a little monetary padding, they ought to consider pitching Kelly Clarkson a melody. They're one of the few pop bands who can pull off love ballad earnestness without being unintentionally funny. "Beautiful Dreamer" features a bridge of the kind that made "Since U Been Gone" a winner-- catchy, uninhibited, and awash in open hi-hat. There's only one difference: guitar is nowhere to be found.
