Do you sing along with 60s Oldies in the car? Are you currently in love? If so, then the MacVitties have made a lovely album for you. From Connecticut, The MacVitties are father and son, Fred and Chris. As the story goes, 25 year old Chris grew up listening to all the great recordings of the Beatles, Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield. Then, living alone in the Australian Outback, he was inspired to take up the guitar and learn to sing and play. Now he sings harmony duos with his dad, who also grew up with this music, backed by a little acousticish band.
All the songs on Love Letters are about love, and since, like those old Beatle songs, they are usually not very specific, you can adapt almost any of the lyrics to your own situation. If you neither have, nor long for, a suitable romantic situation, then you are stuck either imagining a situation, or if uncreative, thinking of the lyrics as part of the music itself like in a Huun Huur Tu song. But still there are some cute rhymes:
"I'm no Shakespeare, I'm no Blake,
I'm just a man with a heart that aches."
The arrangements here are a big part of Love Letters and run the small rainbow from acoustic pop, folk-pop, country-folk pop, to American-style folk-rock. Most of the songs are gently upbeat and optimistic, despite some low emotional spots. The sound is in fact more influenced by than based on the oldies, building with a finer sound based on modern pop and folk. The band plays well together and features all the popular instruments from acoustic and electric guitar to drums to keyboards, with quite a bit of tambourine.
My favorite of the songs is "Inside Out" with some wicked exotic guitar playing, perhaps Spanish. Here is the exception that proves the rule, "With the thunder of the moment from the lighting in your eyes showing me what to do...." As with Herman's Hermits' "Jezebel," pop arrangements change to fit the situation. Another interesting song is "By My Side" which takes an instrumental slip into alternative sensibilities.
For the most part, though, the harmonies are pleasant, the bands good, and Love Letters is an ideal album for mellow optimistic people in love.
