The Babies

iTunes Review

For fans of the Vivian Girls and Woods, this is a dream project: Woods bassist Kevin Morby and Vivien Girl Cassie Ramone hook up in the studio to create an album of tunes sure to please fans of both bands. The foggy folk sounds of Woods are plentiful: the dreamy “Sick Kid” is just hallucinatory enough, “Voice Like Thunder” is all plaintive jangle, and “Wild 1” and “Wild 2” are delicate and rough-edged at the same time, with barbed guitar and reverb aplenty. Other tracks, like the wonderfully catchy “Run Me Over,” the girl-group inspired “All Things Come to Pass,” and the scrappy stomper “Meet Me In the City” bring a V-Girls energy to the project. “Caroline” ventures into Velvets turf, and “Sunset” is beautifully haunting and propulsive; both tunes are a sublime blend of the two groups’ aesthetics. While some are critical, we love Ramone’s charming and imperfect vocals, especially on the chorus of “Run Me Over.” With a name like Ramone, you were expecting Sinatra?