Mates of State
All Day (Polyvinyl)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Amplifier, January-February 2005

Although they have completely different (if not divergent) approaches and sounds, Mates of State share with the Polyphonic Spree a love of chipper pop music that harnesses the power of the harmonized human voice to uplift the listener to an almost obscene degree. A key difference, of course, is that the Polyphonic Spree need more than twenty people to do what Mates of State accomplish with only two. Following up on 2003’s Team Boo, the four-song All Day EP is best viewed as a double single with two choice A-sides and two indistinct Bs, including what sounds like a guitar-less New Pornographers castoff and a loving but unnecessary cover of David Bowie’s “Starman.” Far more worthwhile are the upbeat and hooky “Goods [All in Your Head]” and the more reflective “Drop and Anchor.” As on earlier efforts, it’s Mates of State’s singing that provides them with their most salient characteristic. By now, Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel have developed a vocal sound so distinctive that it’s hard to compare them to anybody but themselves. That’s often enough to carry entire songs on its own, but it creates a type of magic in “Goods,” where Gardner and Hammel follow their own individual paths until the chorus, when they synch up and feed off of each other before splitting off and going their separate ways, reenergized.

Back to reviews