The sun’s rays danced across the dew this morning, with the emerging colors of the day conjuring the hues of a Claude Monet landscape. Via my headphones, two voices blended into one above the strum of an acoustic guitar: “In the white house past the curve of the street/I catch a glimpse of my childhood innocence/Down the big slope and the drop of the hill/I hear a young voice that never can and never will/Make it out of my memories and past that block of time/Escape only being a snapshot in my mind.” The song is called “Madeline” and hails from For the Willows, the debut album from Payton&Annabelle, who are a folk-flavored duo from Michigan. It digs into the wistfulness many feel when remembering carefree childhood days and the friends who populated them.
On their official site, the two cite the Kalamazoo Academy of Rock and a mutual appreciation of the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel, among others, for kickstarting their creativity. They also cite Elliot Smith, Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift as additional influences. One will hear echoes of all those artists in the songs here—especially Simon & Garfunkel. The two, who are in their late teens, also remind me of the Indigo Girls circa the late 1980s as well as, of a more recent vintage, First Aid Kit at their most folky.
Another highlight is “Projection,” which won them the inaugural New Moon Song Competition in 2023. Their voices rise, fall and intertwine, while their lyrics linger between notes. Although self-produced, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Roy Halee’s name listed in the credits. And while I’m mentioning credits: the two are it. They play all the instruments.
Not to say every track is of equal quality, however. Some, like “Last Dance” (no, not the Donna Summer song; they wrote everything here themselves), are the sonic equivalents of cotton candy. Others, such as “Pathetically True to You” and “In Daydreams,” sport their influences on their sleeves as if they’re the colorful patches we kids wore on our jackets and jeans in the early 1970s. Those songs may not be “great,” per se, but they’re interesting and fun. That said, at their best—such as on the songs I singled out above, the title track, “Sonder” and “A Day to Break”—Payton&Annabelle forge vibrant works of audio art.
The album is available to stream on all the usual services, plus Bandcamp.
The Old Grey Cat 