New music Tuesday just keeps getting better and better. This time around we’re coming at you with heart shaped googly eyes over the latest LP from Portland based indie folk duo Josh and Mer.
Josh and Mer have already captured our hearts and ears again and again with their heartwarming folk sound. The intricate finger picking, the gloriously paired harmonies, and their carefully selected lyrics have been more than enough to make us continually want to see more and more out of these two.
Thankfully, today is the day we finally here more. With the title track from this LP, “The Tithe,” we’re taken back a notch with beautiful simplicity. This track offers up that classic familiarity that we’re all used to from folk tracks. Nothing is overdone, and no one is trying to hard. The beauty lies in the easily relatable lyrics, warm-n-fuzzy vocal harmonies, and soft strumming of an acoustic guitar.
Another one of our favorites in the album is “Constant” which displays the duos’ ability to utilize vocal harmonies as a percussion instrument in accompaniment to woodwind, piano notes, and subtle tosses of a tambourine. The soft progression varies significantly from their previously released track, “From the Sea,” which offers the listener a much more pop infused robust folk sound. The harmonies are of course still immaculately put together, however, we get a taste of a slightly more uptempo tune with this release. While it is a more upbeat selection from the album, it’s much more acoustically driven than what was previously released on Planet Music.
As a whole, “Tithe” will take you on an thought provoking journey filled with emotional rife fit for any lazy sunday afternoon spent thinking about that special someone in your life. It calls on associations of Simon and Garfunkle, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, and Angus Stone, and with damn good reason. Press play, and have a listen for yourself.
