Mates of State

Nick & Jessica, Eminem & Kim, Lindsay & whomever ... jeepers, isn't there one celebrity couple around that can keep their shit together for the long haul? Oh right, there's Connecticut lovebirds Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, aka Mates of State. They're bigwigs in the indie-rock universe, at least, who have been together for a decade (and married since 2001), making sweet pop music and intimately clutching each other on the cover of their fourth album, Bring It Back. Anyone who's heard the disc's sunshiny antecedents knows this duo really digs each other and digs life, and on these 10 tracks the Mates are as playful and buoyant as ever: Cheery vocal harmonies, the occasional "woo-hoo!" and "hey! hey!", drumming crisp as early morning air, and twinkling keyboard melodies carry the action here. Only the languorous, piano-propelled "What It Means" delivers anything resembling pensiveness. And just as they expanded their family last year with the birth of daughter Magnolia, Gardner and Hammel built on their usual organ-drums-vox-only setup with guitar, bass, trumpet, and strings, perhaps most winningly on the irresistibly upbeat "For the Actor." Once again, no cracks can be heard in Mates of State's blissful union, and unlike most public displays of affection, theirs are entirely welcome.