It washes over you a few bars into the opener. You’re here, you’ve made it. Angus’ guitar meanders through an open space, playfully suggesting a melody. Before long you’re whisked away on a dreamy chorus. Where you are is Snow, in what feels like the sonic equivalent of a Byron Hinterland vista. You can almost see the rolling green hills through a crack in the studio door.
Make It Out Alive sees Angus narrate over a gentle assortment of strings, with Julia playing keys and harmonising underneath. They trade choruses and double each other’s lines, moving to and from the song’s kernel. Throughout the album they seem to be more aware of the space they occupy as artists, the qualities each possesses and the colours they make when mixed together.
The guitar palate is wider here too, perhaps as a result of Angus’ recent psych-rock efforts in Dope Lemon. This is most evident in Bloodhound, where an opening guitar doused in vibrato sketches a sombre mood. Others punctuate the churning groove and Angus’ croaking vocals as though they were exclamation points.
Snow continues the sibling’s upward march as a musical unit. Their subdued folky essence remains, but the expression is richer.
