The Gainesville, Florida-based brothers behind the duo Edmondson make an engaging sort of vaguely orchestral piano pop on the record Strange Durations, out now via Bandcamp and on Elestial Sound. But, while their intimate vocals have a dreamy but carefully syncopated, Pet Sounds-on-methadone sort of quality to them, efforts for their lyrics to imbue any commentary on the nature of memory and nostalgia – they do, after all, try that angle – fall a bit short.
That’s not to say the record’s not ambitious. The duo fleshes out the skeletal framework of bouncy piano with strings, great vocal accents and occasional percussion, and tracks like the excellent “Haunt You,” with their background refrains of “Bop-ba-doo-wop/bop-ba-dow,” win over the listener. When they keep to just piano and vocals, the songs have a more spare, balladeering quality but the verdict is mixed.
All in all, Strange Durations is a record that wears its heart on its sleeve, as the fellow said, and that heart is pumping out a poppy melody. A kind of sunrise to the sunset of piano ruminations like Thymme Jones’ Career Move.
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