Two Gallants: The Bloom and The Blight
Two Gallants
The Bloom and the Blight
(ATO Records)
Two Gallants may just be the duo Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel, but they make a hell of a noise together. Five years since their last release, Two Gallants, the pair has moved to a new label and refined a sort of blues that celebrates the quiet and the loud.
The vocals on the album adeptly skip between Jack Whiteâs vibrato and Kurt Cobainâs growl, with emotion tinging every word. At times, The Bloom and the Blight risks becoming formulaic when the songs shift from delicate quiet to explosive noise, but taken individually, every song on the record is worth a spin.
Rough-edged âMy Love Wonât Waitâ captures the urgency of a lover, while âBroken Eyesâ combines the sweetness of an acoustic melody with the suspense of a relationship on the verge of collapse. âDecayâ is a sonic nod to the bandâs folksier roots, and the layered ending of âSunday Souvenirsâ shows off Two Gallantsâ loyalty to melody even while creating chaos as a duo.
Each of the songs clocks in at under five minutes, providing the perfectly digestible morsel of indie rock. The Bloom and the Blight is a triumphant return to LP form, though the band could have done with a bit more variety in their offering.