reviews / 2015

TWO GALLANTS - We Are Undone

Name: TWO GALLANTS – We Are Undone
Item: We Are Undone
Rating: 4
Author: Lorenzo Righetto

2015 (Ato)

alt-folk, folk-core

by Lorenzo Righetto

A volte tutte le buone intenzioni del caso non sono neanche lontanamente sufficienti per costruire qualcosa di artisticamente pregnante. L’intenzione è proprio ciò che è al centro di “We Are Undone”, nuovo tentativo dei Two Gallants, storico duo “folk-core” di San Francisco, di riaccendere la propria ormai lunga carriera, fatta anche di momentanei abbandoni e ricongiungimenti, più o meno interessanti lavori solisti etc. etc.

The two certainly aren't the type to hold back, then, and the result is a mix of piano ballads, over which Adam Haworth Stephens unleashes his desperate bray ("There's So Much I Don't Know"), and more imposing "hard" saturations (the title track).

The overall impression is that the band's songwriting isn't able to sustain such a restrained, deliberate tone, and it ends up slipping into the clichés of the more or less contrite alt-country ballad. The nods to punk on "Incidental" are also underdeveloped to a fault.

The distinctive style and the performances more or less hold things together as far as they can, but in the end all the inconsistency and lack of ideas of this second phase of the duo's career comes to the surface.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

06/06/2015

Share on

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Lorenzo Righetto, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

1. We Are Undone
2. Incidental
3. Fools Like Us
4. Invitation To The Funeral
5. Some Trouble
6. My Man Go
7. Katy Kruelly
8. Heartbreakdown
9. Murder The Season/The Age Nocturne
10. There’s So Much I Don’t Know

TWO GALLANTS sul web

Official website

Facebook

Two Gallants on OndaRock

Monograph

Two Gallants

Two Gallants in the Old West

Rural and urban Wild West. Folk and punk. Murder ballads and "lyrical ballads". Influenced as much by the secular sermons of Johnny Cash as by the acoustic shards of Seattle grunge, Two Gallants are one of the most singular and promising bands on the American alternative scene. Songs set in the past that tackle the darkest and most controversial sides of the "American dream". Stories of hobos sitting around the fire that echo in the rage of hardcore right down to the "blocks" of the suburbs