Buried in just seven tracks on the debut album from TWO are crates and crates of musical inspiration. Everything from the obvious – alt and indie rock – to snatches of Depeche Mode-esque synth anthems and even folk. The band, comprised of Nico Vega vets Aja Volkman and Dan Epand, strips away a lot of the bombast and big sound of their former project for a much more focused effort on Pull The Knife Out.
With far fewer layers of music here, the words are front and center and showcase Volkman’s knack for cleaver turn of phrase. Opening track “Live Forever More,” for example, has a breezy melody that belies the powerful lyrics that follow. The same can be said for the spoken word track “Whoa Man,” delivered over a light hum making the lyrics that much starker. The album’s first single, the synth-soaked “In The Rough,” is probably the biggest track here, slowly building to an expansive sound with a soaring chorus that would make Pink envious, but even then the vocals are pushed forward enough that the lyrics are not lost on the listener. “It’s one of the most honest pieces of music I have ever written,” said Volkman. Just as impressively, the duo was able to make a video for the song while under quarantine. “I went through some dark times trying to find the kind of surrender that is expressed in this song.”
Though TWO is not a drastic departure from the music Volkman and Epand made in Nico Vega, neither is it just an obvious continuation of that band. By stripping off some of the polish and excess and digging into more personal material for the lyrics, the duo have turned in a impressively compelling EP and set the stage for, hopefully, a continuation of this beautifully-constructed hybrid of disparate musical influences.
Photo credit: Cameron Jordan Artistry
