Folk, EDM and more lift lyrics from diaries
What’s the deal? Former Wesleyan University roommates turned music-making BFFs Hana Elion and J.J. Mitchell sing together in such close, natural harmony you’d swear they were actually “blood” sisters.
As Overcoats, the New York City-based pair put their sumptuously entwined voices to work over patiently groovin’ electro-pop jams that dwell in smouldering territory that’s equal parts folk, soul and futuristic dance music.
On their beguiling debut album, Young — out in Canada via Arts & Crafts on April 21 — Elion and Mitchell variously conjure the spartan, stylized sadness of the xx, Feist on a slow-motion house-music bender, the witchy alchemy of Warpaint in its weirder moments and Lorde if she saw fit to accessorize her tunes with occasional flickers of distant big-room EDM.
The diarist lyrics can get a little earnest at times, but they’re delivered with such poise one can easily get over their occasional awkwardness.
Plus, it’s hard to dislike a couple of women so confidently uncool that they bookend their record with heartfelt odes to “Father” (“My father understands the demons that I wrestle with in my daydreams/ And knows what to say when they are winning”) and “Mother.” And with producers Nicolas Vernhes (the War on Drugs, Dirty Projectors) and Autre NE Veut behind the boards, everything sounds quite delicious.
Keep your eyes and ears on these gals. Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “We laugh, we dance, we sing. We make music for the soul. We mix folk and electronic music. Think Simon & Garfunkel meets Jamie XX. We feel so lucky to be on this journey together, writing music and seeing the world.” What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Hold Me Close.” Garish meta-rave synth stabs lurk in the background behind a supple, snaky, finger-snappin’ R& B ballad that wouldn’t have been out of place on the last Rihanna record. Where can I see them play? At the Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, opening for Tennis, and back again supporting Feist and Phoenix on Day 2 of this year’s Field Trip festival at Fort York on June 4.