4 out of 5

Label: Bee Resin

Produced by: Karl Blau, Pete Lack, Jarrod Bramson, Emily Madden

Dangit, this is the kinda stuff I’m supposed to just be able to hate.  Husband / wife, stripped-down folk act?  Yeah, just toss it into the ‘blah’ pile over there.  And yes, thank you, bias: my first spin of ‘Ghetto Moon’ had me ranking it pretty low, finding it, as I do a lot of this genre, somewhat indiscernible from one song to the next, and fairly snoozy overall.  And the swear words in the first song also twinged my indie-snark twitch, figuring this as one of those cutesy juxtapositions where we’re all folksy sweet and we say the fuck word.  But I listen to these things on repeat, and I had to admit, cursing aside, ‘Don’t expect to find love (with no compromise)’ was a catchy song.  Memorable, even, with the chorus sticking in my head a few songs later.  And when I tuned in to the words a few tracks in – ‘Unslaved and renowned’ – I found a balance of sadness and contemplation that’s shared in the folk I do prefer, such as Aztec Camera or Fruit Bats.

Many acts in this scene – Iron & Wine, for example – I feel ask their audience to listen.  I&W went full band later, but those initial recordings are very minimal, and don’t sound like much unless you want to cry along with Sam Beam.  Although my ears wanted to hear ‘Ghetto Moon’ this way, it really doesn’t play as such.  Perhaps it’s because Solvents experimented with more sounds first, before going minimal, so their songs are written with a bit more toe-tapping involved.  Maybe husband / wife Jarrod and Emily are just good songwriters.  Whatever.  Either way, you get minimal folk that works on both levels – the songs are varied and lively enough to be taken at face value, with Jarrod’s clean guitar lines and Emily’s inventive but not distracting fiddle, and then if you want to listen, you’re rewarded with lyrics that are neither too saccharine or too tragic.  And whether or not those swears are a cutesy move, ‘Don’t expect to find love’ is a damngingly straight-on relationship assessment.

I was surprised by how much I didn’t have to force myself to enjoy this disc.  True sign of a convert: I’m willingly plunking down some dollars for other Solvents releases.