Album review: Minor Alps Get There (Ye Olde)

Minor Alps is a collaboration between American indie stalwarts Matthew Caws (of Nada Surf) and Juliana Hatfield, an alliance so congruent that Get There is surely the best work of their careers. The voices blend magically, while the guitars of "I Don't Know What to Do with My Hands" and "Far from the Roses" employ a pleasing mix of Neil Young grunge and REM arpeggios. "If I Wanted Trouble" could be an outtake from REM's Reckoning, although its hard-won wisdom echoes Nada Surf's "Weightless". Elsewhere, the two-note pulse of "Buried Plans" evokes the stasis of a loner whose projects are never realised, while "Radio Static" celebrates being able to find beauty everywhere, "even in the foggy air".

Download: Buried Plans; I Don't Know What to Do with My Hands; If I Wanted Trouble; Radio Static