Avett Brothers’ new labelmates make it hurt so good
Having proclaimed God a moonshiner and channeled the sorrows of everyone from flooded-out farmers to Elvis on their ?rst two LPs, this Johnson City, Tenn., duo has ?nally grazed upon some of its own old bones, rummaging through the dark closet of the South. Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews trade gorgeous, aching vocals that sear through a tapestry of plaintive ?ddle and pedal steel, sucker-punching with lines like “you took the candy out of my mouth / and ?lled it up with really old Saltines” (on the sprawling post-love song “Everything Is Okay”) and “time will forget your name / and ?oat away in a purple haze / the best you can hope for is to go in your sleep” (on the heady ?rst track “Aeroplane”). Sometimes love don’t feel like it should, but who’s to say what’s right or wrong with sadness this divine?