200 Years: s/t

Label: Drag City

Equally inevitable and beautiful, 200 Years is the first official album by the duo of Ben "Six Organs of Admittance" Chasny and Elisa "Magik Markers" Ambrogio. Despite their extensive and woolly respective resumes, their work here is simple and pure, all sunlight and moon glow. Essentially it's Chasny playing and Ambrogio singing, and little else; but then, if you know the heights and depths he's achieved on his own records, you'll maybe imagine how special it is to hear someone so incredibly talented playing it straight and easy, strumming and picking. As for Ambrogio (no slight guitarist herself), she has increased her power as a vocalist exponentially over the past few years, and here she offers an honest and at times fragile accounting of a life's view, singing in soft, pretty tones that represent well for the world-weary eternal optimists out there. "West Hartford" is a classic white-kid's blues, convincing on all sides of that description (you've got your mean streets, she's got hers); on "Dead Medicine" she nimbly wends through a field of Chasny's acoustic and electric guitars, hitting hopeful high notes. "City Streets" returns to a particular blues, the haunt emanating from echoing guitar and astral backing vocals. Understated on the surface, 200 Years' debut reveals worlds of experience and imagery in its spacious confines.