The Avett Brothers - The Avett Brothers (2024)

The documentary May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers, released in 2017 and directed by Judd Apatow, is an intensely human portrait of siblings who are frustratingly flawed and incredibly talented, and their remarkable band, including bassist Bob Crawford, cellist Joe Kwon and fiddler Tania Elizabeth. You quickly understand why producer Rick Rubin—working with them for a sixth time on The Avett Brothers—is captivated not just by the Avetts' magical tones (Scott's soft North Carolina affect and Seth's slightly sharper twang), but also Everlys-esque harmonies and melodies that seem to come as naturally as breathing. There's also a disarming sincerity. It's there as Scott sings, wearily and hopefully, “How far is heaven?/ Is it in the air we breathe?/ Some say before us/ And it's always been/ I wanna live/ Forever now with them" on "Forever Now." Spacey and twinkling, with a groovy bass line, it could be a partner to "You Are Mine" from the 2016 album True Sadness; when the music drops out for the siblings to harmonize on "sink and rise, sink and rise again," it's idyllic, not throwaway. "Cheap Coffee" lays out a grand sweep, as if untethered and floating through the galaxy (the song promises to be a live stunner, especially at the band's legendary Red Rocks shows). It ends with a tinny conversation with a kid about infinity and the phrase "a number that never ends" echoing until it fades out. "Never Apart" is a sigh of a song, opening with an angelic vocal prelude. "2020 Regret" is a lovely piano-and-strings ballad (not having released an album in five years, it seems the siblings, like most musicians, needed to shake off the pandemic on record). High-spirited "Orion's Belt" is a jangling rug-cutter that recalls peak Counting Crows. Rollicking "Country Kid," alive with spitfire piano and banjo, is like a Loggins and Messina hoedown—a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll coming-of-age tale that paints an evocative scene: "I was a country kid with a strong foundation/ Getting myself a whole second education/ In the back of the bus, kids kissing and cussing all around me/ One more pick-up in the trailer park/ Hand-to-mouth living'll break a young heart/ Beautiful girl with a hard, hard look in her eye." Coming out of left field, "Love of a Girl" is more of a garage rocker than the Avetts have done before—a manic, aw-shucks lark of an exasperated love song with "Subterranean Homesick Blues" roots. Clocking in at just nine songs, the album ends on "We Are Loved," a sweet acoustic lullaby that finds the brothers trading verses and sounding truly grateful for their lives. “We may be burdened/ But we are loved."

TRACKLIST

1. The Avett Brothers - Never Apart (w/ Vocal Prelude)
2. The Avett Brothers - Love Of A Girl
3. The Avett Brothers - Cheap Coffee
4. The Avett Brothers - Forever Now
5. The Avett Brothers - Country Kid
6. The Avett Brothers - Orion's Belt
7. The Avett Brothers - 2020 Regret
8. The Avett Brothers - Same Broken Bones
9. The Avett Brothers - We Are Loved