Two Gallants
The Bloom and the Blight
(ATO Records)
Two Gallants may just be the duo Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel, but they make a hell of a noise together. Five years since their last release, Two Gallants, the pair has moved to a new label and refined a sort of blues that celebrates the quiet and the loud.
The vocals on the album adeptly skip between Jack White’s vibrato and Kurt Cobain’s growl, with emotion tinging every word. At times, The Bloom and the Blight risks becoming formulaic when the songs shift from delicate quiet to explosive noise, but taken individually, every song on the record is worth a spin.
Rough-edged “My Love Won’t Wait†captures the urgency of a lover, while “Broken Eyes†combines the sweetness of an acoustic melody with the suspense of a relationship on the verge of collapse. “Decay†is a sonic nod to the band’s folksier roots, and the layered ending of “Sunday Souvenirs†shows off Two Gallants’ loyalty to melody even while creating chaos as a duo.
Each of the songs clocks in at under five minutes, providing the perfectly digestible morsel of indie rock. The Bloom and the Blight is a triumphant return to LP form, though the band could have done with a bit more variety in their offering.
