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I had never heard of L'Altra until this album. Apparently it is their third. L'Altra is officially Joseph Costa and Lindsey Anderson. He plays guitar and sings; she plays keyboard and sings, but they've gotten a ton of help in the form of Joshua Eustis--half of Telefon Tel Aviv. Eustis is credited with the stellar programming.
The songs are basically melancholic. The structure generally pretty poppy. The guitar chord progressions are pretty straight-forward, but you get a lot of distortion on a couple of the tracks. I've gone through my phases as to which song is my favorite. The brief instrumental at the end,"A Day Between," seems happily out of place. It has been battling "So Surprise" for my favorite track. The lyrics are tricky and slippery. They make the contemplative music more complex, but in an emtional rather than heady way.
To fill out the sound, there is a glockenspiel (thankfully used sparingly), some really beautiful horn arrangements, a cello, and my personal favorite, hand claps. I don't know who L'Altra was before this release, but I will make the journey to their past to see how they arrived at such an evocative present. (jeremy.03.05)
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