The New Year
The New Year (Touch & Go)
Matt and Bubba Kadane have been collaborating on music for nearly two decades, and their writing and recording process, much like the songs they create, remains unhurried and carefully measured. Four years after releasing their first album as The New Year — an aptly named resurrection of their original Texas slowcore band, Bedhead — the brothers are still taking their quiet time on their third, self-titled follow-up. Filled with quirky little piano frills layered on top of their trademarked guitar swells, the disc is in possession of the charming melancholy the Kadanes have always been known for. Here, though, the atmosphere is restrained to the point where it’s barely bubbling on the indie cook-stove. It may have been wishful thinking to expect an explosive track comparable to the torrential ‘Gasoline’, off 2001’s Newness Ends. But The New Year is less about constructing a complex web of rhythms than it is about folding pretty spaces in between the notes. After awhile, it gets a little exhausting to keep holding your breath for the flickering crescendos that never quite show up.
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