BEN + VESPER
All This Could Kill You
Sounds Familyre
· A critique of ticky-tacky housing that risks turning into a ticky-tacky sound.
The image of the sprawling idyllic suburb has become as synonymous with 20th century America as the working-class tenements of the 19th century and Britain. While the husband and wife duo of Ben + Vesper have been active among the east coast music scene individually for some time, All This Could Kill You marks their first serious collaboration together. It is also a collaboration that calls on various members of the Danielson Family to help round out the otherwise sparse sounds of Ben’s haunting baritone and Vesper’s mournful guitar. Sufjan Stevens appears at various points throughout on accompanying piano. Together, the mainly sombre atmosphere goes far to dispel the sunshine-filled image of the suburbs as a place of hope and respite; instead the songs feature parents drawn thin by the demands of everyday life, the mid-century hopes and aspirations brought low by the crushing mundanity of a world power that has spent the last half-century ignoring domestic issues.
At times bleak, at others banal, interspersed with bright moments of joyful melodies, Ben + Vesper’s suburban opus never quite manages to be as stunning or remarkable as one would hope.
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