Emma Goldman famously wrote that “a revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.” As SISTERS, Emily Westman and Andrew Vait have turned that quote into a pop manifesto. Joy as an act of revolutionary defiance in the face of oppression is the name of their game, and on the new album they sound too good to ignore. New LP Wait Don’t Wait began on an island in rural Washington, where the duo holed up for a week with an iPhone and a few instruments and wrote a free-wheeling, improvised set of songs. Fortuitously, the band was able to take advantage of a last-minute opening at the legendary Different Fur Studios, fleshing out their initial phone recordings with the studio’s vast repository of vintage electronic and acoustic instruments. The duo took residency at the studio for ten days, eating, sleeping, and furiously tracking in a room that has hosted projects by How To Dress Well, David Byrne & Brian Eno, Nick Waterhouse, Jonathan Richman, and so many others. The record was completed before too many memories could be cemented, and then studio owner Patrick Brown (Toro Y Moi, K. Flay, The Morning Benders) applied his wizardly mixing chops to cull the depth and breadth of the performances to the forefront, pumping up the bounce and sweetening the sheen. The resultant document is replete with catchy, quirky corkers and overflowing with effervescent joy.
“Heart Beats,” the first single from the LP, is effortlessly funky and will immediately transport listeners to the dancefloors of their minds. On banger “Sleepy Eyes,” the duo blends new wave with avant jazz, and not since Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique have such abrupt changes within one song felt so right. “Let Me Go,” another knockout, begins with a grimy bassline and a classic hip hop clap with Westman and Vait trading verses, asking universal questions of love and loss. On a dime, the song transforms to a near-power ballad – soaring upward and lifting the listener out of the muck of the day before, and in the same way all pop masterpieces do, it ends all too soon. But Wait Don’t Wait is not merely a record full of major jams that demand repeated listens – rather, it’s actively aimed towards creating a world that is safer for everyone. Hatred, violence, and all the evils that threaten life and love cannot survive in the face of true joy. The world has been waiting, but it needs to wait no more.
“A mix of old school R&B, a touch of disco, a hint of 80s soul, a lot of pop and a whole lot of fun.” -Culture Collide
“I have been to the future of music and it is bright, it is beautiful, it lacks easy classification, and it hits you like an explosion of color and sound waves… That future is SISTERS.”-Secretly Important
RIYL: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Kishi Bashi, Dent May, tUnE-yArDs, St. Vincent, Rubblebucket, HOMESHAKE, Portugal. The Man, Coast Modern
Recommended Tracks: Track 3, “Let Me Go, “Track 2, “Heart Beats,” Track 1, “Scene Here,” Track 4, “Sleepy Eyes”
FCC Clean
Label: Tender Loving Empire
