Work Clothes

Maybe it’s my mood, lately. Maybe it’s aging. But I’ve been listening to quite a few bands lately who make soothing music. Music that’s easy to listen to before drifting off to sleep, or the perfect panacea for the difficulties of the morning, or that which just goes well with digestion. And the dreamiest of CDs I’ve bought recently is the debut LP from Carrboro, North Carolina group Work Clothes.

This isn’t exactly the kind of dream-pop with wispy female vocals that get caught behind simple, pensive guitars; there’s a guy singing, too. Husband and wife team Lee and Jenny Waters put together These Are the Shoes We Wear from songs they’d written over the past 5 years. The songs are remarkable in that they are fed as much by thoughts from a quiet sad girl as by a quiet sad boy. As a clue to this, the album starts off with a military march called “Green French Soaps”.

It’s a really lovely album. Ideal for anyone who might ever feel sad, or anyone who might be aging. And it’s also dreamy, mournful, missed-connection kinda music. The kind that makes you miss friends from long ago. (I miss you, Chris Farmer!)

• Listen to “Fort Bragg Summers“
• Listen to “Over the Moon“
• Listen to more on Work Clothes’s MySpace page
• Or download more from their label Fractured Discs.