BLUE GIANT

Blue Giant

[Vanguard]

In their day job as the indie duo Viva Voce, Kevin and Anita Robinson make dreamy records that let Anita handle the greater portion of the singing chores. Blue Giant moves the spotlight toward Kevin, and turns the husband-and-wife team into something resembling alt-country’s answer to the White Stripes. Anita’s “Lonely Girl” brings to mind a shyer Neko Case, and the love-on-a-tightrope “Gone for Good” could’ve been authored by Gram Parsons as a musical dialogue for himself and Emmylou Harris. But Kevin Robinson’s voice, often relegated to a mysterious hush in the Viva Voce catalog, is a tad too smooth and friendly to speak for characters who have experienced emotional wear and tear. When he warns that his affection is “never to return,” it feels like an empty threat from a narrator who’s under a lover’s thumb. Blue Giant doesn’t need better songs—it needs a chain smoker. –DS