Search - Watson Twins :: Southern Manners

A HEAVENLY ESCAPE

Avalon Don | Huntington Beach, California United States | 12/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The statuesque Watson Twins are much more than back-up singers. "Southern Manners" has an organic, easy listening feel along the line of early Sarah McLachlan and Beth Orton. These songs recorded in analog offer a nice midrange balencing out the strong vocals of Chandra and Leigh Watson. Whichever sister is singing lead, the CD holds up well throughout in a modern kind of way. So if you're expecting "Mr. Sandman" type songs, it's the wrong album. Yet someone who was into the singer, songwriters of the 70's (Carole King, Carly Simon, Heart's "Dreamboat Annie" harmony) might also relate to what these young ladies present. The Watson Twins do their own material, but it's obvious they have extensive backgrounds in music from the past. The songs are catchy. Think of a heavenly escape with a little fire along the journey. If the music alone is not enough, the artistic, fold-out album cover compares to great works of the past like "Clouds" and "Swamp Ophelia". Don't let the EP or low price be a turn off. "Southern Manners" is one of the best hidden treasures of 2006."

Beautiful.

Bill R. | VA | 12/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've had the album they made with Jenny Lewis for a pretty good while now but I somehow managed to miss this one until the other day. In any case, when I discovered it existed I quickly scoured the whole town trying to find a copy so I didn't have to wait for shipping. No luck. I ordered it from Amazon and got it a speedy (but painful!) three days later.



My first thoughts went a little something like this: "..." Yeah, I didn't know what to say. Totally speechless. It's that good.



At first I had a hard time defining exactly what this is, but then again, that makes it even better. Something this great is what happens when you stop caring about genres, labels, and classifications. You can't just call something "country" and throw in a few pedal steel lines and expect it to really be country (did you get that, Michelle Branch?).



The production is great. Nice warm, earthy, dare I say "analog" sound. This is stuff I'd love to listen to on the original factory radio in a mid-1970's Chevy truck. Anywhere else for that matter, but you get the idea.



If you dug the Jenny Lewis/Watson Twins collaboration, by all means, pick this up. You'll be ridiculously far from disappointed.



If you haven't heard that yet (I would say "or just didn't like it," but come on, that's impossible) then put it this way: it's two talented (and foxy) twins harmonizing perfectly, writing their own songs, and playing real live instruments. It's goose bump-inducing not-quite-country, not-quite-rock music chock full of lush acoustic instrumentation and melodies you have to hear to believe.



To sum it all up, my sister looked at the track listing and said, "there are only eight songs?" I replied with, "yeah, I wish there were like fifty." I'm totally stoked for an LP."

Wow!

T. Kealy | 07/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I ran across The Watson Twins' music by accident, but I'm very happy I did. Their writing and vocals are simply stunning. I think their music will appeal to a wide variety of music lovers. Go to their myspace page and listen to a few of their songs; I bet you'll like what you hear!"