Artist:     The Weepies

Album:     Sirens

Label:     Netwerk Records

Release Date:     04/28/2015

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The Weepies are an indie-folk duo composed of husband and wife Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, and Sirens is their first release in five years. The album was an ordeal in the making. In Late 2013, Deb was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. By mid-2014 she had defeated the disease after a long round of treatment. But the band never stopped working, composing and recording at home in Iowa, where they live with their three children. Unable to travel, guest musicians recorded remotely from wherever they happen to be. They included Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello), Gerry Leonard (David Bowie), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel) and Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters). The album contains a generous 14 original songs and two covers of Tom Petty (“Learning to Fly”) and Mark Geary (“Volunteer”).

Throughout, the musicianship is superb, and the harmonizing, a Weepies’ hallmark, both substantial and delicate. This is clearly a marriage made in heaven and forged in common adversity. The songs range from the plaintive sorrow of a love that was left to get away, “Ever Said Goodbye,” to the grand, soaring opening cut, “River from the Sky,” musing on the inevitable brevity and sure fall of all things living, to the lilting and redemptive “Brand New Pair of Wings.” There is nothing insubstantial here, nothing that won’t reward repeated listening.

May the Weepies thrive, continue together and grow with their music that continues to deepen and improve with each outing.

-Robert Myers