First off, ridiculous cover. I wish more people had a sense of humor. These guys obviously do. For this split, Jon Snodgrass and Cory Branan split tunes with Jon getting one extra track but it’s a brief one. There is really only one drawback here and that’s the first tune. “Exciteable” is just pedestrian and does nothing to show off Snodgrass’s excellent arranging skills. After this awkward first step, though, it’s all uphill.

Branan’s lead contribution, “Corner,” walks a delicate line between Tom Waits’ balladry and Conor Oberst’s emotional warble, making for a beautiful song. Snodgrass follows with “Solo in Soho” bleeding right into “Wild One”, the soft, moody atmosphere of the first playing directly against the anthemic catchiness of the latter. The highlight of the record arrives in “Walkaround,” a crazy, careening track that bounces along with no discernable time signature or even direction aside from Branan’s well-told story. The EP wraps up with “Born Apart” and “Yeah, So What,” both of which really serve to exemplify the different styles between these two great songwriters. The former shows off Snodgrass’s ability to layer instruments and atmosphere incredibly well while the latter features more of Branan messing with form and some of the stuffy singer-songwriter conventions. Seriously, this is great stuff aside from one song and well worth the price of admission.

Label: Suburban Home