No Depression once described Mouths Of Babes—the duo of married singer-songwriters Ty Greenstein (formerly of Girlyman) and Ingrid Elizabeth (formerly of Coyote Grace)—as “a queer folk supergroup,” and the results here suggest they were on target. On their second full-length release, Greenstein’s hooky, upbeat folk-pop meshes beautifully and effortlessly with Elizabeth’s more traditional singer-songwriter tunes, with the pair’s luminous harmonies a highlight regardless of who wrote each track.

What’s more, in World Brand New they’ve constructed an honest-to-deity album with themes and flow and insight and a powerful message: it’s up to us to create the world we want to live in. On opener “World Brand New,” Greenstein channels Come On Come On-era Mary Chapin Carpenter, lively country-folk with writerly lyrics, an introspective yet upbeat celebration of domestic life. Elizabeth answers back with ukelele in hand, sharing her own warm, endearing vision of domesticity in “I Do”: “When I look at you I hear / Wedding bell alarm clocks in my head / I wanna chase you around the bed / Spread my jam on your homemade bread.” The message of both songs is simple as can be: this is what love looks and feels like.

An undercurrent of melancholy emerges in Greenstein’s “One For Me,” a gorgeous, philosophical love ballad: “And I don’t know if we’re souls and stardust, or just biology / Seems the one thing that I know is you’re the one for me.” Elizabeth counters with “Set You Free,” a dramatic ballad that swells with strings in the third minute, a mother wishing for a better world and a better life for her babies. The building sense of foreboding reaches its first crest with “Pictures Of You,” Greenstein’s interior monologue about a former friend who’s ghosted her, with all its trapdoors of negative self-talk: “And how do I answer the voice in my head / When it tells me I must have deserved what you said.”

The second half of the album opens in sharp contrast as Elizabeth’s “Jubilee” again channels Mary Chapin Carpenter—this time the jubilant Cajun zydeco accordion-violin explosion of “Down At The Twist And Shout.” Returning to core concerns, Greenstein’s “Except For The Love” delivers a love song for the ages, a gorgeous salute to her grandparents’ 74-year marriage.

The duo’s sense of playfulness surfaces again with Elizabeth’s randy, flirty “Summertime,” a classicist country-folk anthem that name-checks Patsy Cline while updating her vision of romance: “And thank God / That boys like her like the girls like me.” Flipping the lens from micro (their relationship) to macro (the society they live in), Greenstein’s “My Country” is a heartfelt, deeply patriotic lament for the regression and oppression represented by the Trump years, building to this final, cautiously optimistic note: “Ain’t it worth one last shot to be / The land of the free?”

Rather than use their own words to answer all the questions they’ve raised, Greenstein and Elizabeth turn to the great Holly Near to close things out, delivering a magnificent gospel cover of her anthem “I Will Follow”: “I am open and I am willing / To be hopeless would seem so strange / It dishonors those who go before us / So lift me up to the light of change.” It’s a powerhouse finish that caps off this album’s journey beautifully.

World Brand New is a heartfelt and consistently tuneful and engaging album that’s as honest and genuine in sharing its creators’ concerns with the world as any I’ve heard this year. We can only hope there’s more to come from Mouths Of Babes.

Rating: A-

User Rating: Not Yet Rated

Comments