The Avett Brothers, I And Love And You
Featured Album
The scruffy, bearded brothers get pretty and tackle heartbreak full-on
For years, North Carolina's Avett Brothers were a scrappy, genre-scrambling country band beloved for their raucous live shows, their nimble, bluegrass-inspired banjo picking, and their plaintive songs about lost love. Like an old Hank Williams LP or a Carter Family bootleg, Avett albums were shuffled around, passed lovingly and quietly amongst friends.
These days, the brother duo (augmented by buddy Bob Crawford on bass) is poised for bigger things: colossally bearded super-producer Rick Rubin (renowned for his work with Johnny Cash, the Beastie Boys, and Jay-Z) signed the band to his American Recordings label, and signed on to produce I And Love And You, the Avett Brothers' first major label long-player.
If the name didn't give it up, I And Love And You is a don't-hold-back heartbreak record; its title track ("Load the car and write the note, grab your bag and grab your coat / Tell the ones who need to know…Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in," they implore) is a piano-led ode to new beginnings, which seems fitting, given the band's glossed-up — but no less affecting — new sound. And while I and Love and You is a little more likely to appear on an episode of "Gray's Anatomy" than at your local hootenanny, the Brothers' earnest, impeccably harmonized vocals are transfixing, and their down-and-out ballads ("The Perfect Space," "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise") linger and linger and linger.
