When you get right down to it, who needs choruses? All you need is a string of melodic verses, decorated with pretty vocal harmonies, a good cross-section of lead and rhythm instruments swelling and deflating to supply some dynamics, and maybe a bridge or two for some variety. That appears to be the recipe behind To A Friend, the latest from Brooklyn band Tandy. Oddly enough, it works. Quite well.
Much of that has to do with the compelling, taciturn songs of singer-songwriter Mike Ferrio, which are filled with cryptic characters and broken narratives that hover just out of comprehension. “Superette” is a dreamscape of a song that contains fragmented images of parking lots, payphones that won’t ring, old lovers, a flaming empire, a rocket. It’s as disjointed as a David Lynch script, but that’s part of the fun.
Sonically, it sounds like Ferrio is less concerned with Tandy being a tight combo this time out, inviting his bandmates to stretch out more. Drummer Bruce Martin plays a lot of piano, and Drew Glackin tastefully weaves in a bunch of different stringed instruments. The only downside to the lusher pop sound is the absence of Sibel Firat’s cello, which appears solely on the august closing track “Providence”.