Astralwerks
2004
Two Way Monologue
About This Album
Sondre Lerche's first album, Faces Down, was bursting with promise. Two Way Monologue fulfills that promise and then some. Right from the beginning of the first song ("Love You" (a brief instrumental that hints at things to come with a sunbursting string arrangement and beautiful chords stacked together like bunches of flowers), it is clear that Lerche has lost some of the tentativeness that made his debut flawed and has blossomed into a pop craftsman of the highest regard. The songs on Two Way Monologue are lyrically mature and sophisticated; the sound of the album is full and arranged perfectly, Lerche effortlessly twists his vocal into falsetto swoops and intimate whispers, and almost every song is worthy of starring on a mix CD made to impress your friends. Songs like the complex "Track You Down" and "Wet Ground" point to a new level of sophistication both in the songwriting and the performance. "Two Way Monologue" is a perfect distillation of Lerche's style and is probably his best song. Starting as an acoustic ballad that shifts into a rollicking pop tune and then into an Astral Weeks-ish ballad and back, it really is an amazing song. Lyrically it is a touch inscrutable, but that is part of his charm as well.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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