Two Gallants
We Are Undone
ATO RECORDS
5/10
There have been subtle differences in every album that Two Gallants have released since their 2004 debut, The Throes. On their latest, there are still signs of the band’s fundamental folk roots, punk ideals, and self-deprecation, but We Are Undone feels heavier than the band’s previous efforts, both sonically and lyrically. The first half of the album contains jaunty tracks like “Incidental” and “Fools Like Us,” where Adam Stephens belts out catchy choruses surrounded by fuzzy reverb. The polished production strays from Two Gallants’ essential rawness, but Stephens’s calculated quaver maintains some of the band’s core sound, especially transitioning into the folkier second half introduced by “My Man Go.” A longing feeling of escapism lingers in the lyrics of the album’s following tracks, ending with the overwhelming defeatism of “There’s So Much I Don’t Know.” On We Are Undone, Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel seem to have something to say, but they fall short of expressing it in any memorable way.
