Husband/wife duo Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, better known as Mates of State, have released their seventh studio album,  Mountaintops, and through the ups and downs they continue to build on their relationship with love and music. Mountaintops finds me singing along and bobbing my head as very often the songs are too catchy with the tag team jamming on their traditional retro synth and percussion combo to crank out some anthemic, uplifting tracks. Add to that the amazing songwriting and vocals and you have a combination that really propels this album forward.

The album starts off on a great 1-2 punch with the driving “Palamino” and “Maracas” and you instantly begin feeling better about yourself. As you go deeper into the album though, you begin to realize how much the relationship between these two comes out in their music. With songs like “Mistakes” and “Changes” you really feel the connection these two have with each other and it’s like singing these songs is their way of dealing with some of the downsides of marriage. But then you listen to “Total Serendipity” and  “Basement Money” and realize that they’ll make it through in then end (We Wait/We don’t give up/Money, we don’t need it). And it’s at this point, after you’ve listened to the album, that you realize that even when this couple is sad, it’s still very happy, and when they’re happy they like to shout it out (i.e. the never ending La La La’s on “At Least I Have You”)! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the upbeat, sunny-pop album Mountaintops with it’s catchy hooks and resounding choruses. Check out a couple of my standout tracks, “Palamino” and “Basement Money”, from the album below. You can also stream the album completely free at the Mog Music Network using the link provided.

Stream: Mates of State – Mountaintops

 
[wpaudio url=”http://thesightsandsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/01-Palomino.mp3″ text=”Mates of State – Palamino” dl=”0″]
 
[wpaudio url=”http://thesightsandsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/06-Basement-Money.mp3″ text=”Mates of State – Basement Money” dl=”0″]
 

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