Loves It
All We Are (Team Austin)The eternal hamstring of having too many ideas comes from not knowing whether you’re making floor wax or dessert topping. Such is the all-over fate of Loves It. The road-tested Austin duo’s second full-length goes on a mixed-bag bender of Appalachian-derived folk, honky-tonk tearjerkers, and quirk-laden acoustic pop. That leaves the unadorned, plaintive vocal interplay between Jenny Parrott and Vaughn Walters to tie it all together. After opening with the clever a cappella wordplay of “Katydid,” Parrott takes off on the sweet-sounding jukebox mash note “The Angels Sing.” Her ability to bend and stretch notes for strategic emotive wallop goes a step further on the woeful love triangle ballad, “Choose.” The wry, Conway-and-Loretta humor of “(Would You Like to Be) My First Divorce” and “Western Swing Murder” also hits the mark. It’s tempting to suggest narrowing the focus as a remedy for superfluous half-executions like “Rocketship,” but the acrobatic songwriting instincts also feed genuinely moving meditations like “Peace.” Despite the imperfections of its bric-a-brac veneer, All We Are radiates homespun endearment.
This article appears in Ted-dy Cruz-er.
