September 29th will see the release of I and Love and You, the new studio album from indie roots band the Avett Brothers. For this album, the North Carolina trio present us with another collection of songs firmly grounded in American roots music.
Vocal folk-inspired harmonies greet you with the title track opener. "January Wedding" provides a twangy range ditty and "Ill With Want" provides the introspective cowboy lament.
Disappointingly, I and Love and You is a more subdued and safer sounding album than most of the Avetts catalogue. While the band's sense of humour is still present, there's a pep that seems to have been drained from the music. Ramshackle rockers like "Tin Man" are few and far between, replaced with buffed and polished Jayhawks-esque tunes such as "And It Spreads" and "Incomplete and Insecure".
There are a few exceptions. The exceptions, like the pulsating piano rocker "Kick Drum Heart" and the fun loving "Slight Failure of Speech", are the real standouts on the album.
The Avett Brothers are at their best when they are banging out cheeky roots-inspired road trip rockers. Too bad those are nearly non-existent on I and Love and You.
Avett Brothers play the Horseshoe in Toronto on September 30th.
Best tracks: "Kick Drum Heart", "Slight Figure of Speech"
Track listing for I And Love And You:
- I and Love and You
- January Wedding
- Head Full of Doubts, Road Full of Promise
- And It Spreads
- Perfeect Square
- Ten Thousand Words
- Kick Drum Heart
- Laundry Room
- Ill With Want
- Tin Man
- Slight Figure of Speech
- It Goes On and On
- Incomplete and Insecure
6.0/10
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