Two Gallants: Saddle CreekAn unhappy marriage of sounds  October 3,
2007 4:31:29 PM
Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel have long been trying for a sound that’s both earthy and artsy, Bright Eyes folk rock delivered with an aw-shucks squint. So far — on two full-lengths and a pair of EPs — the results have been underwhelming. That trend continues on this homonymous disc. The good songs — the bitter “The Hand That Held Me Down” and the driving “Despite What You’ve Been Told” — work because their fast tempos match Stephens’s strong, razor-like voice. When he sings, “The heights to which you drag me/Just to hurl your scorn,” he spits the words. But on songs with a laid-back, solemn feel — the plodding “Ribbons Round My Tongue,” the hymn-like “Fly Low Carrion Crow” — that acidic delivery is distracting. Until Two Gallants find a way to marry their two sounds — one shrill and pointed, the other dull and blunt — we’ll just have to settle for Conor Oberst.
Two Gallants + Blitzen Trapper + Songs For Mom | Middle East Upstairs, 472-480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | October 5 | 617.854.EAST
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