Sunset / Sunrise

iTunes Review

Seattle’s Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison follow their 2008 debut with a sound stretching beyond the ‘60s-tinged psych-folk-pop that made She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke so familiar and embraceable. On Sunset/Sunrise, they still use stripped-down instrumentation — simple percussion, electric and acoustic guitars — and Appalachian-kissed melodies, but move more towards the current interpretation of that music rather than the Jagger/Richards’ filter of 40 years ago. “Living This Life Makes It Hard” and “Scorpio” waltz to minor keys, sad violins, and echoing tom drums, while “Let It Die” would be a barnburner with a few more instruments on board. Lortz bares his soul in his songs, and the cream of this crop is the latter, an early Springsteen-styled confessional that moves from “I could keep what’s left of me,” to the realization, “I could stay the same forever, but it wouldn’t be too much fun.” He’s nervously staring down pending parenthood; Springsteen was never quite this vulnerable. Morrison takes the vocal lead on “When You Leave My Arms,” and clearly has fun throwing a pinch of soulful, classic girl-group heartache into the mix.