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A BRAND NEW NIGHT
(ZOE/ROUNDER)
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Although the synthesized drum pattern that kicks off the opening "Shadow of Doubt" suggests that the Cash Brothers are aiming for broader contempo-pop terrain than the acoustic hues that colored their 2001 debut, this sophomore follow-up to How Was Tomorrow finds singers/guitarists Andrew and Peter Cash still doing what they do best. In fact, the brighter, fuller instrumentation that frames the songs here both enhances and refines the Canadian-born brothers’ gift for creating lean yet laid-back-sounding tunes about restless characters trying to figure out what to do with their lives. "Dealing with the Distance" is a lovely, troubling sketch that finds the singer stranded far from home "in an old cold phone booth when you told me you were pregnant." All he can hear, over the mid-tempo shamble of electric guitars and percussion, is his lover’s trembling voice and a howling wind. A similar deserted wilderness of drift and existential doubt underpins the hollow comedown of "Forget About the Dust." Just about the only miscue is the pedestrian sub-Sheryl-Crow-style rock-by-the-numbers of "Give Me Your Hips," which sounds like an afterthought. Anchoring the material are the brothers’ sublime, sibling-close vocal harmonies and winsome melodies, which, like the Jayhawks’ best works or the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, make melancholy something fetching to revel in.
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