I and Love and You

Apart from my man crush on Sufjan, there are a couple of other artists whom I go ga-ga for on a pretty regular basis. It is a select group of artists whom I can listen to at any time of day, any time of year and, well, it's pretty exclusive. (No big deal.)

The Avett Brothers are definitely members of this group. I fell for them hard two years ago through their album Emotionalism, and haven't looked back. I (try to) learn their songs on guitar, I (think I) woo Katie with their lyrics, and I find that I (probably falsely) relate to them on some sort of level (what that level is I'm not sure, but a man can dream). Heck, a song from these guys could end up as the first-dance song at my wedding. (At least I'm pushing for it. Stay tuned.)

Regardless, they released a new album today, I and Love and You. It's their major label debut, and was produced by none other than mega-music-producer, I-could-produce-three-platinum-albums-in-my-sleep-using-only-the-skin-on-my-left-elbow Rick Rubin. I haven't purchased it yet (saving it for the record-shopping spree with the boys on Saturday), but I've streamed it a couple of times. Despite this nagging feeling that they should have avoided Rick Rubin (just seems so mainstream) I'm finding that the album is unsurprisingly fantastic.

I'll probably post my track-by-track review of the album sometime next week, after I've bought the vinyl and descended from the Cloud 9 that I'm expecting U2 to perch me atop Saturday night, but in the meantime, this is the music video for first single "I and Love and You." It does a pretty good job showing the world what these Carolina boys are like, and just how beautiful their songs can be. Enjoy.