Emotionalism

This is the Avetts before Rick Rubin found them and sanded the corners down. Emotionalism is homemade and earnest to the point of nearly tipping over, two brothers and a bass player playing folk songs with punk energy and meaning every word a little too much. That’s the appeal, not the flaw.

Die Die Die opens it running. The Ballad Of Love And Hate is the one that stops you, just Seth and a guitar telling a whole story in four minutes with no chorus to hide behind. Shame and The Weight Of Lies are the ones I keep coming back to.

It’s a double record and it feels like one by Side D. A tighter single LP is buried in here somewhere. But the harmonies are the real thing, the kind brothers get and nobody else can fake, and when this record lands it lands hard. You forgive the sprawl.