Our Room

Years in the making, Andrea Mathews (voice) and Tim Story (music) cook up a rich, brooding, utterly compelling followup to their acclaimed debut, an album singled out by 'The Absolute Sound' as one of the 40 best albums of the last 40 years. Tim Story's dark, immersive grooves and Andrea Mathews' haunting and seductive vocals conjure up a world of devastated relationships and defiant hope. Balancing the angelic with the raw, Andrea's voice can tease with innocence or rip with scathing precision. By turns fragile, theatrical, ravishing or ravished, when in 'Lit Up' she whispers 'you're gonna love me til you die' you're not sure if it's promise or threat. Story's swirling downtempo soundscape is equally hard to pin down - slow retro organ riffs punctuated by hyperactive drum bits; a cello trades lines with a slab of overdriven electronica; vulnerable confession turns into unapologetic sax-fueled uber-ballad in the album's rousing closer 'Lorain'. Flirting with styles and references that span decades, 'Our Room' is beholden to none. Rich in nuance and texture, bracingly candid, 'Our Room' might be a little unsettling in it's dimly lit corners, but it's surely a captivating place to explore...