It’s something of a risk for any band, with barely one album behind them, to put out what they’re calling "a collection of acoustic demos and outtakes from 2010-early 2011." Without any history behind them, how significant are the orphaned ideas of such a young band? Does an audience really need to hear every half-baked sketch?
But when the band consists of Vivian Girls’ (QRO album review) Cassie Ramone and Woods (QRO photos) bassist Kevin Morby, and when New Images Records, run by none other than Matthew Mondanile of Ducktails, is putting out the album, you aren’t dealing with the average band. The talent here has been steadily in the spotlight that comes from being part of established long-term acts with national touring schedules and well received albums. What started out then as something of a side project, when Ramone and Morby shared an apartment for the summer, has actually taken hold, as a legitimate band in it’s own right. It’s got a lot to do with combining the best of both worlds: the layered shoegaze pop of the Vivian Girls and the psych-folk of Woods, which sounds right at home coming from the textured warble of a four-track. The accidental field recording captures the sound of a neighbor’s stereo through the wall and pet birds chirping; they become as important as the songs themselves, barely captured over the hiss of a cassette tape.
Click here for photos of The Babies at Great Scott in Boston, MA on May 26th, 2011 in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for photos of Hospitality at CMJ 2010 in New York, NY in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
As a behind-the-scenes look into their process, Cry Along With The Babies is inevitably going to fail for some people. These songs are imperfect from the get go. As interesting as it is to hear the raw foundations of the songwriting, it’s essentially the two of them playing acoustic guitars in a living room. It’s admirable to be this naked but you have to be impossibly talented to pull it off. The listener is invited to experience the origins of a song, for better or for worse.
The first track, "My Mercedes", has Morby’s delicate high vocal as the focus, with Ramone singing backup in a similar twee style. The untrained vocal relies on the emotion of pursuing an out of reach note. These fragile voices coming from a flawed recording are intimate, something of an unpolished diary entry, part of a private, uncensored process that inherently won’t be judged the same way as finished work, even if we’re being asked to. This naïf-ish track couldn’t have originated in a cramped Brooklyn apartment, sounding instead like the middle of the night with insects gathered by the millions flying into the deck light.
In other words a lot of this album could be equally at home with the quieter pop folk feel of The Mountain Goats (QRO live review) or the interior sadness of Lou Barlow’s four-track recordings (QRO album review). It’s endearing as hell because of its flaws. Without the overdubs and unlimited tracks, they’re forced to work on the bones of the song before pressing record.
Take "Trouble" for instance, in what must be an early version of this track that ended up on their single for Teenage Teardrops. Here it highlights more of the songs vulnerability, it doesn’t have the later processed, layered sound, it’s just two musicians telling a story spontaneously, sharing the space, inspired by the sound of another acoustic guitar. Morby might even be alluding to a Velvet Underground influence in the "Here she comes," repeated lyric.
The final track, "That Boy", is an example of their combined experience working perfectly together to create a great melody, which, stripped down, comes off as unusually sad considering the normally sunny attitude in their separate work.
If the audience is willing to accept from the beginning that this can’t be judged in the same way as a polished studio recording, if they’re more interested in raw insight into The Babies songwriting process, or just plain want an unpretentious documentation of talented roommates, then you’ll be glad their close friend Mondanile got a chance to set this impermanence in stone.
MP3 Stream: "Big Mercedes"
