What does it sound like?:
Two Ways Home are billed as an Alt-Country duo, formed in 2015. Isabella Mariee is from Vienna and Lewis Fowler from the Cotswolds. They live in London.
As you can imagine, they bring a European Folk sensibility to their so-called Alt-Country. Isabella has a strong, clear voice, counterpointed and blended with Lewis’s dustier tone. They pay close attention to the harmonies, imaginatively mixing things up, sometimes together, other times apart. Both are impressively powerful, yet capable of sensitivity. This is their third four-track EP and has benefited from a visit to Nashville where they got some help with their songwriting and buffed up their production.
The opening track, Best Part Of Me, is buoyant and quite the toe-tapper, the pair exchanging lines at the beginning, then driven together by a spritely guitar for the singalong chorus. It is commercial enough to attract radio plays. Push And Pull is more restrained and Folky with a melancholy lyric juxtaposed by a bright irregular rhythm. Don’t Give Up On Me Tonight is a beautifully fragile ballad, co-written with Logan Brill. There are some heart-tugging rising chords here and a very satisfying chorus. It has all the hall-marks of a Country standard. Finally, there is the title track, written with Demi Marriner, a song about deception containing a neat musical twist in the middle.
For Closest Stranger, Two Ways Home have refined their songwriting and polished their playing, delivering a very professional EP. One feels that this is just the beginning of a long career.
What does it all *mean*?
Nashville tends to add a sanitising gloss to whatever Alt-Country is. Impressive though that is, I prefer something a bit more raw.
Goes well with…
Fine leather belts and an expensive Stetson.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Other British duos, such as The Shires and Ward Thomas, about as far from straw and manure that Country can get.
Tiggerlion says
Best Part Of Me
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Quiet Friday afternoon so thanks to Spotify I sampled my way through a few EPs and other stuff from these bozos.
Jingasroonie, Tiggs – this is dreadful!! Me like some country, me like some alt country, me even like some Americana but this is mind-numbingly awful.
ps is this review sponsored by Bargepole? We should know who is responsible!!
pps just pretend you are standing to Kaisfatdad and forget everything else https://youtu.be/OPvp_ZxRwdU
Tiggerlion says
It is a Bargepole inspired review but I think you are being harsh. The ballad is pretty decent, at least.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I have said this before so I will say it again – I feel uncomfortable with these “sponsored” reviews. One of the joys of this site is reading some similarly obsessed person waxing lyrically about a record/artiste I have never ever heard of previously. I can love it, I can hate it but I know there is nothing but personal enthusiasm behind the post.
I would love to think ,Tiggs, you have posted this because you think Two Ways Home are worthy of our Hive Interest but honestly….
Tiggerlion says
There is room for both.
I enjoy the challenge of listening to something I haven’t bought myself and writing an honest review. I confess to focussing on the positive but I expect it’s pretty clear when I really, really like something.
Constant super enthusiastic reviews must get tiresome to read at some point.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I should probably be addressing this to Bargepole but I have no problem at all with you using your admirable skills to review something you may not be 100% behind. The problem I do have is why/how particular artists are “chosen”.
IMHO that’s a world away from an Afterworder offering his or her’s independent opinion on whether or not so-and-so is any good.
Bargepole says
Occasionaly I get contacted saying here’s this new artist, can you give a helping hand by reviewing their new release – so usually I’m happy to do that, time permitting.
retropath2 says
“The problem I do have is why/how particular artists are “chosen”.”
Or indeed reviewers. (In defence I should say I have done one review in this way and turned another couple down, but is it because we all are saying no to Bargey that they are 85% him, 10% Tiggs and a smattering from others.) I know Bargey is doing the donkey work to get all these streams sent to folk, free from the kerfuffle of box/artwork/supporting information, but he is having to/choosing to listen to a hell of a lot of, IMHO, dross himself. Or is AW a far hotter bed of, one example, Barclay James Harvesters than I had hitherto thought?
Bargepole says
It’s an almost impossible job – messaging one person – do you want to do this review – no – next person – no- next – no response etc etc – multiply that by however many albums are available for review and it gets very time consuming before a word has even been written.
It’s often easier to turn to someone who will most likely say yes – and do a damn good job of it too, even if it’s not something they’re particularly interested in themselves – or just to do them myself. At the end of the day, I do have a proper job as well, and time is limited to get albums in, sort out someone to review it or listen to it and write it myself, check the review appears at the right time etc.
Also, I think it’s good to listen to music outside your normal tastes now and again.
minibreakfast says
Is it possible to openly ask for volunteers to review particular albums, on a dedicated thread, rather than contacting people individually?
Tiggerlion says
He’s done that a number of times.
Bargepole says
What he said…. 😉 or sometimes if a person has started a thread or written a nights out on a band then I ask them first, eg the recent review of The Fall album or the upcoming one on the Manchester box set.
The last time I put out a general call for potential reviewrs, on a thread rather like this one if I remember correctly, I had precisely one response! By the way, that person has since done three or four reviews.
minibreakfast says
Must have missed them. Could you make it a sticky?
(stoppit)
Tiggerlion says
Do some Mini. I love your reviews. I have fond memories of Daft Punk. I believe you were the first to attach a YouTube clip of one of the tracks. It’s not all modern Country stuff. Lots of synthpop from the eighties being reissued too!
Bargepole says
Go on – I’ll bite – how do I make it sticky then?
minibreakfast says
I dunno. Rub it?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Last question before I shut the f**k up – when did the AfterWord become a repository for record reviews? If I want a record review there are roughly 2.3 million other places on the internet I can find one. What I, and perhaps I alone, come here for is an exchange of views on music, politics and whether or not Moose & Mini have got it on yet. Occasionally that does indeed include a record or concert review but that’s because Poster X or Poster Y thinks something is fabulously brilliant or irredeemably crap.
Look above and below this thread – how many of these current posts fit that bill?
Bargepole says
But that’s just your view of what this site is ‘for’ – other opinons are available – and of course you don’t have to read the reviews, just scroll past them 😉