{"id":3623,"date":"2011-10-07T11:42:07","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T18:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3623"},"modified":"2011-10-07T11:42:07","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T18:42:07","slug":"mates-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/10\/mates-of-state\/","title":{"rendered":"MATES OF STATE"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/M-Review-JulyAugust2011-MATES-OF-STATE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3624\" src=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/M-Review-JulyAugust2011-MATES-OF-STATE.jpg\" alt=\"MATES OF STATE\" width=\"400\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/M-Review-JulyAugust2011-MATES-OF-STATE.jpg 400w, https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/M-Review-JulyAugust2011-MATES-OF-STATE-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>M<\/strong><strong>ATES OF STATE <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><em>Mountaintops<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Barsuk]<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen years and seven albums in, Mates of State\u2014the married duo of keyboardist Kori Gardner and drummer Jason Hammel\u2014still sound like lovestruck teens on their latest self-produced effort. Their voices volley back and forth among bouncing, bubbling synth lines, crashing cymbals and lyrics like \u201cYou\u2019re a pot of gold and you\u2019re sitting at the rainbow\u2019s edge\u201d (from the girl group\u2013inspired \u201cTotal Serendipity\u201d). While that effervescence and wide-eyed enthusiasm can come off as the indie-rock equivalent of a quirky rom-com, it\u2019s not all playtime here. <em>Mountaintops<\/em> shows newfound lyrical depth\u2014especially on the final three tracks, which unfold like an interconnected mini-epic and tackle the album\u2019s themes of struggle and striving head-on. Longtime fans may wish there were more clap-your-hands tunes about hanging out in the basement, but as Hammel sings on \u201cChange,\u201d \u201cChange is gonna come and set you free.\u201d In other words, enjoy the climb. \u2013Jesse Thompson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MATES OF STATE Mountaintops [Barsuk] Thirteen years and seven albums in, Mates of State\u2014the married duo of keyboardist Kori Gardner and drummer Jason Hammel\u2014still sound like lovestruck teens on their latest self-produced effort. Their voices volley back and forth among bouncing, bubbling synth lines, crashing cymbals and lyrics like \u201cYou\u2019re a pot of gold and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,656,2482,2488,2489],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}