The beauty in acoustic albums usually comes from hearing a song you know and love take on a different resonance when it’s stripped back and unpolished. This is definitely the case for the songs on husband&wife’s Acoustic Recordings. All of the songs were recorded in the band members’ homes, which makes the songs sound quite homely and personal, as though you’re eavesdropping on someone else’s life.
Opener “Aargh Maties” deals with rejection and feeling out of place, which are perhaps not the most original song topics, but it’s hard to get a song like that right; it’s all too easy for it to sound fake and hard to believe. However “Aargh Maties” definitely delivers, and is the rare case of a song where it genuinely feels you’re living vicariously through it. As lead singer Mike Adams intones ”You made it clear that I don’t belong here/So I’ll collect my things and leave” it feels as though a break-up is happening right in front of you.
The warm, emotional vocals on “Extendo Jam” offer a clear window into the moment when you reach the realisation that you’re not matching up to what people expect you to be. As Adams sings “You’re just like the ones that I love/It pulls me apart because I wasn’t” the song has, at its rawest, most emotional points, a vocal surprisingly similar to You Me At Six’s Josh Franceschi’s.
Varying from the optimistic and uplifting “Florida Hideaway” to the pleading vocals on “Did I Not Tell You” husband&wife prove themselves as a band who can accurately and carefully tap into the rawest of emotions and make their songs take on a whole new lease of life when played acoustically.
All of the songs on Acoustic Recordings were recorded in response to fan demand as part of a Kickstarter project in which the album was fan funded, the band recorded every acoustic track that was requested by the project backers. After the thirtieth song or so some of the magic is lost due to the sheer amount of songs, while acoustically the songs work on an individual basis there are times when listening to the album in full that the songs take on an all too familiar sound.
Perhaps Acoustic Recordings would’ve worked better as a double album. While the majority of the songs have their pivotal and captivating moments sometimes they just don’t seem to work together as a cohesive piece due to the sheer expanse of the songs and the inevitable similarities that will occur on a long album of only acoustic songs.
Mostly this is an album of believable emotional songs shown in a different light. If you listen to “You Remain Unloved” and don’t feel anything then you’ve clearly got a swinging brick for a heart. It’s obvious that a lot of care and consideration went into the creation of this album. Lengthy track listings aside, this is definitely an album that won’t be easily forgotten, and for all the right reasons.
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