TWIN SISTER – In Heaven (Part 1)

Brandon writes to Natalie about Long Island quintent, Twin Sister’s debut LP, In Heaven, which just came out on Domino Records. It’s a confidently playful album that may or may not be sequenced in pairs, and one that covers a broad tableaux, from Blondie’s nu-wave, to loungey R&B, to spaghetti-western. That’s right, you heard me. Spaghetti f*ing Western. (Or something like that. I’m not really sure how else to classify it.)

Twin Sister – “Kimmi in a Rice Field”

From: Brandon Hall
To: Natalie Snoyman

Holy nu-wave, Batman!

Hey, Natalie! As usual, I discovered Twin Sister because of you. Specifically from your Best of 2009 mix you made on which you put “Nectarine” from the band’s first EP, Vampires With Dreaming Kids. I really didn’t think much of the song or the band at the time. It was a nice song, but nothing about which to get my panties in a twist. Then, last year, they released their second EP, Color Your Life, and my panties were officially twisted. I really enjoyed the quiet, lived in quality of the songs on that EP. The only real aberration from that sound was the disco jam “All Around and Away We Go” which reminded me of the delightful, euphoric stuff LA’s Music Go Music have been putting out for the past few years.

So consider me surprised when I grabbed In Heaven and found that “All Around and Away We Go” was more the rule than the exception. In fact, their debut is chock-full of surprises. Did you notice the sequencing, by any chance? Now, tell me if I’m imagining things. But to me it seems as though In Heaven‘s 10 songs are comprised of five pairs with unique styles. I can’t quite pick what genre I want to go with for the first pair, “Daniel” and “Stop,” but I’d be willing to make an argument for 90s twee R&B pop. “Stop” is a song I actually love, so remind to come back to that. Or you can talk about it, if you like! The next two songs, “Bad Street” and “Space Babe” are deliciously nu-wave dance tracks. “Bad Street” is Blondie redux (in the best way), though “Space Babe” actually makes me think of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” “Kimmi in a Rice Field” and “Luna’s Theme” are pure 80s nu-wave synth ballads. But the first real curve balls of the album come in the next pair, “Spain” and “Gene Ciampi,” which play along on a spaghetti-western gallop that would make them fit right at home on the Kill Bill Soundtrack. At first, I thought these songs were a silly detour, but they’re executed so well, and sound like so much fun, especially “Gene Ciampi,” it’s kind of hard to be mad at them. The album finishes with probably two of its most accessible, or that is to say, familiar sounding, pop tracks in “Saturday Sunday” and “Eastern Green.”

So am I crazy? These are all paired up, right? For the most part, I tend to like one song over its pair, and I think the album’s strongest stretch comes from the trio that sees the funky “Bad Street” give way to the slick groove of “Space Babe” which leads into the album standout,  “Kimmi in a Rice Field,” by far my favorite track on the album. Though, since it sounds so much like the tracks on M83’s Saturdays=Youth, and, by proxy, what my nostalgia remembers of 80s synth music, I can’t tell if my love of “Kimmi in a Rice Field” speaks to the skill of Twin Sister’s arrangement or my deep seeded love of Saturdays=Youth, or maybe just that scene in Sixteen Candles when Sam Baker comes out of the church to see Jake Ryan waiting by his car. Either way, who cares. I love “Kimmi in a Rice Field.”

Quick side note: I just saw Twin Sister perform at the Mercury Lounge here in New York last Thursday. As you know, lead singer Andrea Estella, who just so happens to be beyond adorable, sings in a childlike squeak not unlike that of Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki. So while Twin Sister set up, what did the audience hear? Thirty minutes of Deerhoof. It was like calibrating the audience! After 30 minutes of Matsuzaki’s less than grammatically proficient chirping, Estella sounded perfectly normal! I thought it was brilliant. I loved it.

What do you think of Estella and guitarist, Eric Cardona, sharing vocal duties, by the way, the result of which being that a number of songs take on a duet-like structure? Does that work for you? I’m on the fence.

“Tell me a secret I won’t tell anyone,””
Brandon