The Weepies came to life when, in 2002, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen met and discovered they were fans of each other’s then-new debut solo releases. Their debut, 2003′s Happiness, was built on what they had been doing as individual artists. With Say I Am You, the duo is settling nicely into their own shared sensibilities. The thirteen songs are sparkling pop nuggets, full of depth and surprise.
The name they’ve chosen is apt, as the lyrics are full of resonant woes, but presented with friendliness and even curiosity, like someone who knows that sadness is part of life and rolls with it, safe in the knowledge that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The instrumental layering mirrors the gentle complexity of their songs; the lyrics are planted as small narratives that give the singer lift.
This pair knows a good hook when they’ve developed it, but the stop short of running it into the ground. Case in point: “Gotta Have You” has a wonderful set of lines that lead up to the titular phrase. They wisely resist leaning solely on what they must have known was a catchy chorus, by subtly building the force of the arrangement underneath it.
