The partnership of
Ben Chasny of
Six Organs of Admittance and
Donovan Quinn of
Skygreen Leopards spawned an excellent album under the name
New Bums in 2014. Built on acoustic guitars, shaggily sad tales, and the kind of last-candle-before-dawn feel that every
Nikki Sudden and
Dave Kusworth record has,
Voices in a Rented Room felt like the first volume in an ongoing story. It took half a decade for them to get back together to make more music, and 2021's
Last Time I Saw Grace picks up right where their debut left off.
Chasny and
Quinn have lost none of their uncanny knack of re-creating the moods and sounds of classic
Jacobites-style scarf rock; the chiming strum of two acoustic guitars, the snaking melodies and spare arrangements, the subtle wit and wisdom of the lyrics, and the aching melancholy of the vocals all combine to make this a time-traveling lost follow-up to Texas or The Ragged School. The duo aren't merely aping their shock-haired heroes, they bring plenty of their own idiosyncratic style to the record. Whether it's humorous lyrics about the travails of being in a band ("Cover Bands") or abstract sloganeering ("Tuned to Graffiti"), they don't stick to the usual topics of heartbreak and romance, but when they do venture in that direction ("Marlene Left California," "Wild Dogs"), they start the mascara running with no problem. Most of the songs are lodged firmly in the melancholic, too-sad-to-strum-much range -- which is fine since they do it so well -- but occasionally they boost the energy level to a slow strut, like on the almost peppy "Billy, God Damn" or "Tuned to Graffiti." Much like on their first album, the arrangements lean toward the spartan, though there are little flourishes -- the soaring backing vocals on "Onward to Devastation," the rippling electric guitar solos on "Wild Dogs," and the sawing strings on the almost baroque "Street of Spies" -- that help the songs pop a little more than they might if it were just two bummed-out dudes strumming in unison. Both
Chasny and
Quinn seem like they were born to make this kind of record, and since both
Nikki and
Dave have sadly departed, there is an open lane for this brand of battered ballads, delivered with a light touch and a heavy heart. Their band name may not have the same panache as
Jacobites, but
Last Time I Saw Grace proves a worthy successor to the many great albums that duo made over the years. ~ Tim Sendra