Review: The One Eighties soar through genre skies with debut LP, ‘Minefields’
The indie duo dart between genres with ease.
When listening to The One Eighties’ debut album, it’s hard not to imagine it orbiting the very same sun as Kacey Musgraves’ transcendent Golden Hour. The duo – of singer-songwriters Autumn Brand and Daniel Cook – manifests their own genre mutation with Minefields. Zig-zagging around the universe, the former New Reveille band members dabble in everything from string-bound compositions (“Cinnamon”) to disco (“No King”) and meditative indie-folk fusions (“Dead Star Light”). They tumble through the cosmos, with nothing but their songwriting holding them together.
Like Musgraves, The One Eighties stretch the limits of their craft, bending styles like light through a prism. What constitutes genre means little, and good for them. Cook and Brand won’t be caged by such constraints. Instead, they define genre on their own terms. Each musical swerve is like a rubber band snapping. And you get the sense that the creative pair are blooming right before your ears. It might be their debut outing, but there’s a masterclass of musicianship on display many new artists rarely achieve. It’s magnificent to behold.
The pulpy titular cut throbs with textured heartbeats, a prime exhibit of the band’s ambition. “Falling out of touch with everything that’s real / Addicted to the rush of running through a minefield,” sings Brand, her voice shiny and neat. “Oh, I can’t get enough, and I don’t care if it’s real / Hits me like a drug, love is like a minefield.” Love, it seems, detonates and obliterates everything in its wake. The same could be said about their work – it rockets into the sky before exploding into a million tiny fragments. And you can never anticipate what you might witness. That’s their charm.
Where “Nightmare, Baby” bounces along before erupting into an indie-rock space odyssey, “Fever Dreams” strips things back for an introspective, moody setpiece. “I put your letters on the coals as if I ever could forget,” sings Brand. The pain hangs thick off her tongue, dripping down her chin and leaving acidic marks on the ground below. Minefields – mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone (Musgraves, Father John Misty) – is erosive, yet wonderfully magical and steeped in emotionally-rich stories about life, love, and heartache. With several key players, including Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, Amanda Shires) and bassist Mark Hill (Kelly Clarkson), The One Eighties plot an impressive debut that’s one of the year’s most unexpected.
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