Videos by American Songwriter
After releasing the EP All Of The Fire last year on Chris Taylor’s Terrible Records, Acrylics is back with a perfectly-constructed debut full-length, Lives And Treasure, out on their own Hot Sand Records and Friendly Fire Recordings. The album is filled with acoustic jewels that recall sunshine pop more often than the Brooklyn duo’s lo-fi contemporaries.
Molly Shea and Jason Klauber trade vocal duties throughout, with Shea spearheading “Sparrow Song” while Klauber takes on the folky “The Window,” where he displays a nasally restraint reminiscent of Conor Oberst.
The duo go for big electro productions too – like “Nightwatch”’s ‘70s pop and “Lives And Treasures” ‘80s disco-soul. But the real joys of Lives And Treasures are the short acoustic vignettes like the two-minute “Tortoise Shell Shades” with its sublime, sweeping pedal steel. “Girl, I handed you my tortoise shell shades, Got the sunlight in my eye,” the duo sing together.
With songs like “Tortoise” and “It’s Cool Here,” you might think you’ve unearthed a lost ‘60s folk nugget. “It’s cool here sitting by the riverside talking to you,” starts Klauber. “You got your arm around my waist,” Shea joins in over a lingering major-seventh chord, the album’s most perfect captured moment.
