Album Reviews

Two years after their first full-length album, Say I Am You, hit airwaves, folk-pop darlings The Weepies return with their sublime follow-up, Hideaway. Born of the exhaustion that follows a major promotional tour, Hideaway is 14 tracks of supposedly "darker" material. The now-married husband and wife duo of Steve Tannen and Deb Talen are the first to admit they both felt "empty" before beginning work on the new record. So, for the fans of the shimmering love letter-y sentiments on Say I Am You, this can be a scary notion. Swirling yellow sundresses and long days at the beach, lazy walks through autumn leaves and late-night cuddling—these blissful images are the very reasons why listeners love The Weepies. And now they've gone and got themselves a lil' bitter and burnt out? Say it ain't so!

It ain't so.

Sure, there are a few introspective and emotional clouds ("Lighting Candles") in this Hideaway sky, but overall the record marks a breezy, fresh return for the pair. Their love and optimism amidst strummed guitars and wistful refrains is still very much intact here, especially on the jaunty lead single "Hideaway." Despite the fact that the album's topic du jour—lyrically—eschews that big four-letter word, the sound is still inherently Weepies and enough to supply mass quantities of butterflies. On the gorgeous standout track "Antarctica," a tune about leaving your life behind, there's a generous helping of positive energy—and a chorus worth humming all day long; meanwhile, the achingly pretty "Just Blue" makes you feel anything but, even as Talen laments, "I'm missing you/And there's not a thing to do/I'm blue/Just blue." Her child-like voice goes down like a refreshing glass of lemonade throughout, whether she's singing about break-ups on "All Good Things" (one of the five songs they helped pen for Mandy Moore's Wild Hope or just loving life on "All This Beauty."

Jump in the car, roll down the windows and head for the country or— even better— the beach. This is the dreamer's soundtrack to spring and the coming summer, another beautiful batch of mostly sunny tracks that deftly prove: Rain or shine, The Weepies' life is pretty damn good.

—Matthew Allard
04.22.08