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LABEL: Self-released  RELEASE DATE: August 5th... | positivexposure

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LABEL: Self-released 
RELEASE DATE: August 5th 2014
OVERALL RATING: 8 – Unique
STANDOUT TRACK: “Law & Order”
IN A SENTENCE: Yoni Wolf creates the perfect sonic backdrop for what feels like pages out of a very private diary and Anna Stewart’s vocals are like a lazy summer afternoon: slow, smooth, and beautiful.
Listen/purchase: Divorcee by Divorcee

Divorcee is unique because the choruses in each song change lyrically but not melodically and each line in Anna Stewart’s raw emotional lyrics takes you back to certain memories in her relationships. The lyrics are so raw in fact that you have to wonder what Yoni Wolf was thinking when he entered into a partnership that would require him to hear more than a few scathing thoughts about himself. Perhaps he is just getting a taste of his own medicine, letting Stewart vent about their private lives the way he did with Alopecia. WHY? fans will catch a few obvious rebuttals from Anna’s point of view, in which Stewart and Wolf go “toe to toe, blow for blow,” but will be left wondering just how many lines on this EP are about Yoni.

Opener “Snakes and Oysters” didn’t engage me until the line just before the chorus, “our leering neighbor used to watch me cry.” It just grabbed my attention. I don’t particularly like the accordion on this track as it doesn’t seem to fit. “Snakes and Oysters” definitely shows us Anna’s lyrical prowess, something I was (needlessly) worried would be lacking on an album where Yoni Wolf’s lyricism took a backseat.

“Thoughts of a Man” definitely picks up musically and the funky chorus coupled with more great lyrics made me pay attention to a song I wouldn’t like otherwise, mostly due to the vocals. They’re just not my style on this track, until the choruses when the bass kicks in. This song is a wonderful and intimate look at the life of a touring musician’s girlfriend, in which she can “only imagine the thoughts of a man” and confesses that she “kissed a boy on Halloween in a Jason mask / and if I was sorry that I did it would you take me back?

I love the sampling of WHY?’s "Good Friday” throughout “Last Fist,” a track which instantly caught my attention with its chunky bass that is reminiscent of something on Alopecia. The line “I am not suited for matrimony” explains the project’s name in a quaint and simple manner.

“Absence and Presents” is particularly scathing lyrically. “In spite of my desire to please, babe I’m gonna have to leave/ and I’m sorry that you can’t say the two words that might make me stay.” The track continues the girlfriend’s point of view with lines like “I guess I can understand now that I have a band. You can’t meet demands from the seat of a van,” or the particularly gut-wrenching “I wasn’t stunned you didn’t answer your phone. You were right, you didn’t try the day my cat died, sigh, sigh, sigh.” This paints a much different picture than most fans see in their heads when they imagine dating someone who tours. All we see are the perks, not the missed calls, times we needed someone and they weren’t there for us, or the heartbreak felt by the person those songs are about.

“Low Piñata” is the heaviest song on the EP with the most musical filler in the form off bass, organs, drums, and electronic noises. “You don’t know my middle name” turns slowly into “I can’t recall your middle name or whether you or I am to blame” turns slowly into “you still don’t know my middle name…. when we met ….  I swear you knew my middle name.”

Closing track “Law & Order” definitely steals the show both musically and lyrically. Its funky beat and heavy Smiths influence add to its infectiousness. I tried to fight it but I have to sing along. I just have to.  “Law & Order” hits the hardest lyrically. It’s very sentimental, nostalgic, depressing, and revealing: “Living with you is like driving in the rain” and “Living with you and being blindfolded are the same / I can’t see where I’m going and it makes my head ache.”

Divorcee is the perfect debut for this duo and I hope it’s not the last chapter of their ever-changing relationship.

TRACK BY TRACK RATING BREAKDOWN:

Snakes and Oysters: 7
Thoughts of a Man: 9
The Last Fist: 7
Absence and Presents: 7
Low Piñata: 8
Law & Order: 8

Not much has changed since Sunny Landon was little. She still insists on listening to one song over and over until she discovers her next favorite, she still always carries a journal, she still treats people the way she wants to be treated, and she’s still very particular about the way her socks fit. @Sunzusunzusunzu on Twitter.

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