I know I promised a series of posts about my favorite U2 songs this week, and I plan on returning to that series tomorrow. But I couldn’t let today pass without mentioning the major label debut of my current favorite band, The Avett Brothers. For a couple of years now, I’ve been hyping the bluegrass-tinged rock and soaring harmonies of this North Carolina indie trio. Their latest full-length release, Emotionalism, with its raw energy and electric vibe, has become one of my favorite albums ever. Their live show last September in Nashville was probably the best concert I’ve been to, which is no small thing. Needless to say, I’ve been looking forward to this new album for quite some time.

Teaming up with uber-producer Rick Rubin, the Avetts have crafted a sound quite unlike any of their previous recordings. The major components are still intact (banjo, guitar, bass, kick drum); its the tone that’s different. Rubin seems to have ever-so-slightly sanded off some of the rough edges that have characterized the Avetts earlier work (like “Denouncing November Blues”, for instance). The album also is a little more ballad-heavy than most of their previous LPs. As a result, there’s no track that’s as immediately arresting as “Go To Sleep” or “Paranoia in B Major”, two of the notable tracks from Emotionalism. I’m sure some hardcore fans will bemoan the more polished sound found on I and Love and You. But I think this album can also be understood as the next step in an organic maturation process. Any band worth their guitar picks and hair gel adapts and grows into their sound as time passes (see The Beatles, U2, The Stones, Radiohead, to name a few). Just because the banjo-rock has been dialed back a notch doesn’t mean this isn’t a really good record.

The standout song is the title track, a piano drenched ballad about wanderlust and love lost. Written while the band was on the road (after a performance in Brooklyn, New York, a place that seemed as far away from home as any place the band had ever performed), the song laments “three words that became hard to say: I and Love and You.” With its tightly wound harmonies and old timey Western-piano plink, “Laundry Room” is another great track. “And It Spread” and the acoustic “Ten Thousand Words” are probably the best of the rest; a few tracks, notably “Kick Drum Heart”, seem out of place. “Kick Drum” just seems a bit too upbeat for this more contemplative, mature set. And even though I wish there was at least one rabid banjo-fest rocker in this set, this is still a really solid album nonetheless. This probably isn’t a five star album, but its a great addition to the Avett canon. I and Love and It.