This was a busy weekend with CoolDaughters 1&2. We had to drive CoolDaughter #1 to Rutgers and back for her one race (which lasted all of 42 seconds) of The Holiday Classic swim meet. CoolDaughter #2 turns six this week, so we spent Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of her friends. Those (welcome and cherished) distractions coupled with being at a general loss for what to write about had me nervous that I wasn't going to have anything to post for a while. But then I glanced through the list of year-end releases and remembered that The Babies put out their sophomore effort, Our House on the Hill, on Woodsist in November.
The Babies started out as a side project between Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls and Kevin Morby of Woods. Our House on the Hill is a successful melding of the sounds and songwriting styles of the band's two founders and sounds a lot more like a full-fledged band effort than a side project. The girl-group garage rock of Ramone combines with the jangly folk rock of Morby to produce thirty-five minutes worth of sometimes shimmering, always head-bobbing pop.
The album's second track, "Slow Walkin," is maybe the best example of what the collaboration can produce as it features Morby and Ramone trading lines about a love that "ain't right" over some jangly rock guitar. The chorus sees Morby repeating "Slow walkin'" while Ramone backs him with a series "Whoa oh Whoa oh". Ramone takes lead vocals on "Baby," which is probably the most Vivian Girls-sounding track. Morby channels early Lou Reed on the acoustic "That Boy." "Get Lost" and "Moonlight Mile" are garage rock embellished by a glassy guitar riff in the first case and Ramone's distant "ooh ooh" in the second.
Our House on the Hill combines the talents of two excellent pop songwriters and allows them both to shine. The album sounds like a true collaboration, and its combination of fuzz and reverb with Americana produces something that hits a real sweet spot for me.
I'll have Our House on the Hill cued up for my next run, which I'm really planning to do today. This will be a good one to have in my arsenal for those days when I just can't decide what to pick. I can see Our House on the Hill, which is full of sounds that I love, being one of those records I'll be in the mood for almost any time.
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