Kentucky natives The Watson Twins, composed of identical twin sisters Chandra and Leigh Watson, excel in marrying sultry vocal harmonies to atmospheric frameworks that nod to elements of soul, blues and Americana. They have just released their newest solo record titled Talking to You, Talking to Me, this past week. The duo’s stylistic inclination is not far removed from Jenny Lewis and her indie rock/country band Rilo Kiley — which, considering Lewis exposed the Twins to a larger audience on their 2006 collaboration album Rabbit Fur Coat, doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

The big difference? While Lewis’ prime strengths come from her wry lyrics and her knack for penning memorable, endearing melodies, The Watson Twins’ lyrics sometimes border on generic and their melodies leave less of a lasting impression. To their credit, they’re clearly more focused on carving a distinctive atmosphere from track to track than creating catchy hooks. The downside is that, while each piece is well constructed, the duo fails to paint a captivating bigger picture.

The Watson Twins’ newest album continues exploring the quasi-gothic, melancholic mood that dominated their previous album Fire Songs and mixes it with a number of simpler, more upbeat country-influenced numbers, making for a two-faced listening experience.

The slow-burning, eerie blues-soul hybrid “Midnight” is the record’s crown jewel, capturing all the best aspects of the Twins’ music: a gently modulating, jazzy chord progression, earnest and heartfelt vocal delivery, and haunting background harmonies. This is all down with a backing band in full form that understands the importance of keeping arrangements sparse yet also knowing when to build to a thunderous climax. The band employs snarls of stinging guitar and the ringing wash of an organ (an element that persists throughout the album), while you can practically hear the room the R&B-style drums were recorded in. The band’s top-notch instrumentation, coupled with its restraint, serves as a perfect launchpad for the Twins’ emotive vocals.

Aside from “Midnight,” a few other tracks showcase a similarly successful mood. The tense deep-soul shuffle of “Harpeth River” morphs into a faster, brighter chorus and benefits from tasty wah-pedal guitar licks. First cut “Modern Man,” contains drums uncannily reminiscent of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” rides on a fluid, propulsive jazz current.
“Forever Me,” with its echoing snare rim clicks and subtly dynamic bass line, stands out as The Watson Twins’ clearest foray into trip-hop territory.

While  a song like “Brave One” initially suffers from a lackluster verse melody, its propulsive chorus provides a satisfying release of tension.

Unfortunately, Talking to You, Talking to Me is one of those decidedly front-loaded albums. As the record continues, it fails to develop its ideas with the same depth and detail — and, ultimately, the Twins can’t sustain their musical vision across a full album. The music may exude a distinctive atmosphere, but the individual songs have a tendency to blur together. Plus, the album’s vie for cohesion is hampered by throwaway, overly-simple country-ish songs such as “Savin’ You” and “Devil in You,” which not only clash with the album’s somber material but suffer from a lack of strong melodies and leave little to no lasting mark on the listener.

Ultimately, The Watson Twins remain an impressive duo on the character and timbre of their vocals alone, and their music benefits from a professional, understated backing group. However, if they want to retain the attention of listeners across an album, they need to hone their sense of melody — even if it means they have to sacrifice some of their signature ambience.

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Album Review, Stream

One Response to “The Watson Twins “Talking to You, Talking to Me””

1. ericphipps says:

   March 2, 2010 at 2:48 pm

   John, this is a really good review.

   In your opinion if they worked with a different producer who could help them solidify their ideas do you think that would be detrimental or beneficial to them as artists? My own exposure to them is wholly through the Jenny Watson album but from the promotional material and from their “solo” music they strike me as more conduits for ideas and atmosphere than as strong, stable artists capable of creating a worldview to place us into.