The vagaries of the recording industry have always seen to it that a lot of great music will go through periods of unavailability for reasons well beyond the control of the artists or even the labels. Viva Voce's second and third albums certainly fall into that category-- good music that disappeared for a while. Lovers, Lead the Way! and the Heat Can Melt Your Brain, both made by Kevin & Anita Robinson, are what most home recordings can only aspire to be: complex, classy, and memorable. I was glad to hear that they were being reissued in this convenient 2xCD package, because they're both records that deserve a wider audience now that the band's profile has risen with their move to Barsuk (their 1998 debut is still lost for the moment).
Lovers is hugely enjoyable, full of simple pop, bombastic instrumental passages, weird home-cooked experiments, and as many instruments as the Robinsons could get their hands on. Anita's guitar playing and Kevin's drumming really came into their own on this album, and the fact that they both play and sing well obviously works in their favor as they pile up the vocal harmonies and instruments, weaving hissing Chamberlain and warm organs through their songs. "Red D-Lish" is still among their very best songs, with its Brian Wilson percussion and ragged, inspired guitar solo, but there are plenty of other great tracks, from the progged-out instrumental "Yr Epic Heart" to the sweeping, beautiful opener "Fashionably Lonely", which opens the album with an orchestrated passion that would make Jeff Lynne blush.
Heat opens quite differently, with a ferocious peel of fuzzed-out guitar, but on the whole, it's really in the same basic headspace as its predecessor. The spouses trade lead vocals and combine on abundant backing harmonies, and if anything, the playing is even stronger and more inspired. Anita's lead guitar parts are confident, and her thick, gutsy tone is exquisite on "Free Nude Celebs". "High Highs" is a brilliant sidestep into smoky r&b that betrays the couple's Muscle Shoals roots with a fat, melodic bassline and soulful vocals. "The Center of the Universe" is still their most majestic moment, with Kevin's assertion that "the center of the Universe is a star-sucking hole" backed up with huge swaths of cosmic electric guitar.
The bonus material, lumped together on disc two after Heat, includes three previously unreleased demos, four live performances, and a bare-bones Tunng remix of "Wrecking Ball", originally from Lovers. The demos are, well, demos-- roughly recorded but reasonably fleshed-- and two of the songs are new to us. (Though "Doo Wap Death Trap" ultimately became Heat's "Daylight".) The live performances, three from a KEXP appearance, the other a cover of the 1926 David/Rose song "Tonight You Belong to Me", are all excellent. I'm not sure if they had any hired guns with them at KEXP, but it sounds like a full band, or at least a lot of programming and triggers. "Tonight You Belong to Me" is a sweet and sparse duet backed only by guitar and melodica.
Amore!Phonics has done a good job of pulling all this stuff together and adding value with the unreleased tracks and a thick booklet complete with full printed lyrics and tons of photos and original art by Kevin (no overwrought liner notes, either). The detectives among you will notice that I gave both of these albums a 7.6 in 2003 and 04, respectively, but I've raised their cumulative score simply because I think time has been kind to them. This speaks to one of their greatest strengths as a band: While their music has moments of pop immediacy, it also has enough complexity and depth that repeat listens are very rewarding.
